\n<\/p>\n
This article includes spoilers from Season 3 of \u201cThe Bear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Three seasons in, it is clear \u201cThe Bear\u201d knows how to book a guest star.<\/p>\n Last season, this FX series about a chef \u2014 named Carmen Berzatto, but Carmy to nearly everyone \u2014 who transforms his family\u2019s Italian beef sandwich shop into a fine-dining restaurant called the Bear, featured a parade of Hollywood celebrities including Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman. In the new season, currently streaming on Hulu, \u201cThe Bear\u201d is showing off its food-world bona fides with a series of cameos from star chefs.<\/p>\n In the premiere episode, titled \u201cTomorrow,\u201d Jeremy Allen White\u2019s Carmy reflects on his past, which leads to a series of flashbacks that take him to the kitchens of renowned establishments like Noma in Copenhagen and Daniel in Manhattan. Then, as a bookend, the season finale features a host of dining luminaries attending a closing dinner for Ever, a restaurant run in the show by Colman\u2019s character, Andrea Terry. Colman is one of many returning guest stars (Curtis is another). Famous newcomers to \u201cThe Bear\u201d include John Cena and Josh Hartnett, as well as the \u201cBillions\u201d co-creator and noted restaurant lover Brian Koppelman in an acting role.<\/p>\n That finale, titled \u201cForever,\u201d blends fiction and reality in a way now familiar to \u201cBear\u201d fans. That\u2019s because Ever is a real restaurant in Chicago that is \u201copen for business and thriving,\u201d Curtis Duffy, one of the owners, said in a statement. Duffy also said he was \u201chonored to host so many of my peers from across the nation.\u201d And, in addition to Ever, the series continues to feature various Chicago spots, including the Croatian cafe Doma and the sausage purveyor Jim\u2019s Original.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But it\u2019s the chefs who steal the spotlight. Here\u2019s who enters Carmy\u2019s orbit this year.<\/p>\n In the flashback-heavy season premiere, Carmy, while standing outside O\u2019Hare International Airport, tells his sister, Natalie (Abby Elliott<\/a>), that \u201cNew York\u2019s got everything.\u201d The next thing we know, he\u2019s at 65th Street and Park Avenue entering Daniel, the elegant domain of Daniel Boulud. Boulud himself soon appears onscreen, training Carmy directly. One of the dishes we see Boulud showing Carmy how to prepare is his famous sea bass wrapped in thin strips of potato, which he developed at Le Cirque. A 1989 article in The New York Times explained that<\/a> \u201cthe dish works brilliantly for several reasons. The crunchiness of the ultrathin potatoes contrasts with the delicate bass but does not bully it; the heavily reduced, almost pungent, red-wine sauce is counterbalanced beautifully by the sweet leeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Last season, the Bear\u2019s pastry chef, Marcus (Lionel Boyce), went to Copenhagen to hone his talents, following in his boss\u2019s footsteps. Now we see a glimpse of Carmy\u2019s time there, specifically at the acclaimed restaurant Noma, under the eye of Ren\u00e9 Redzepi. As Redzepi surveys a wall of photographs of dishes, he and Carmy exchange a glance and a nod. Last year, Redzepi announced<\/a> that he would be closing Noma, which currently has three Michelin stars, for regular service at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n Beran is the chef behind the French restaurant Pasjoli in Los Angeles. But onscreen, in the premiere, you can see him in a flashback working alongside Carmy at Ever under the tutelage of Colman\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the sixth and seventh episodes of Season 3, keep an eye out for Paulie James, a founder of the Los Angeles sandwich mini-chain Uncle Paulie\u2019s Deli, a celebrity favorite<\/a>. In the seventh, titled \u201cLegacy,\u201d James shows up to get the Bear\u2019s Italian beef window running smoothly alongside Christopher Zucchero, the owner of Mr. Beef, the real-life inspiration for the show\u2019s original shop. Zucchero has occasionally appeared in \u201cThe Bear\u201d since its start, as Chi-Chi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the premiere, we also see Carmy basking in the California glory of the French Laundry. In the finale, the Laundry\u2019s chef, Thomas Keller (also of Per Se), takes the stage in a cold open. Keller tells Carmy \u2014 who\u2019s seen in flashback on his first day at that restaurant preparing the family meal \u2014 how to remove a wishbone from a chicken and truss the bird. \u201cI know people call me a chef, but our trade is cooking and that, to me, is such a profound profession, because we get to really be part of people\u2019s lives in significant ways,\u201d Keller says. \u201cSo never forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the restaurants synonymous with fine dining in Chicago is Grant Achatz\u2019s Alinea<\/a>, so it makes sense that Achatz would show up to attend the \u201cfuneral\u201d for Ever. There, Will Poulter\u2019s character Luca, introduced last season in Copenhagen, quizzes him, asking specifically about Alinea\u2019s edible balloons<\/a> and Achatz\u2019s \u201cTruffle Explosion,\u201d described in a 2016 Food & Wine article by Pete Wells as \u201cexploding ravioli.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n During the funeral meal, Carmy schmoozes with Kevin Boehm, co-chief executive and co-founder of the Boka Restaurant Group. Boka has a number of notable restaurants around the country, including the namesake Boka from Lee Wolen in Chicago; Stephanie Izard\u2019s Girl & the Goat, with locations in Chicago and Los Angeles; and Michael Solomonov\u2019s Laser Wolf<\/a> in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n Wylie Dufresne is also at the party, where he functions as the nucleus around which many other guests orbit. He currently operates Stretch Pizza<\/a> in New York but is best known for the groundbreaking WD-50, which closed a decade ago. Wells, writing in The New York Times<\/a>, said, \u201cNo other chef did as much as Mr. Dufresne to make kitchen geekery cool.\u201d So, he\u2019s a perfect fit for \u201cThe Bear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Christina Tosi is a pastry chef best known for being a founder of Milk Bar, which offers her creations like cereal milk soft serve. But one of her early jobs was at WD-50. At the funeral dinner at the table with Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), she talks about making \u201ccornbread ice cream\u201d and points to Dufresne, explaining that he \u201cran me through the gamut. How many different ways can you get ice cream to taste like cornbread? Turns out months and months of different ways. It\u2019s, like, why I became obsessed with ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Tosi is married to Will Guidara, who also appears at the Ever farewell. He used to run the Make It Nice hospitality group alongside the chef Daniel Humm until their partnership ended in 2019<\/a>. Guidara wrote the book \u201cUnreasonable Hospitality,\u201d and is embedded in the \u201cBear\u201d world. He has a story credit on the third episode of this season, \u201cDoors,\u201d and is a co-producer on the series.<\/p>\n Anna Posey, also one of Carmy and Sydney\u2019s dining companions, is the pastry chef at the Michelin-starred Elske in Chicago. She runs it alongside her husband, David Posey.<\/p>\n At dinner, Malcolm Livingston II talks about making a ganache deemed \u201cthe greatest ganache ever\u201d by \u201cAlex.\u201d That would most likely be Alex Stupak of Empell\u00f3n in Manhattan, an alum of \u2014 where else? \u2014 WD-50. Livingston succeeded Stupak at that Dufresne establishment<\/a>. Livingston now runs August Novelties, a line of dairy-free frozen desserts, but he also used to be the head of pastry at Noma.<\/p>\n During the Ever dinner, Luca compliments Rosio <\/strong>Sanchez on a dessert she developed that had \u201cnegroni ice cream on it.\u201d A Chicago native, Sanchez is now a mainstay in Copenhagen. She worked at Noma before opening her taqueria, Hija De Sanchez<\/a>, followed by her restaurant Sanchez<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Genie Kwon\u2019s Filipino restaurant Kasama already had a major moment in \u201cThe Bear\u201d: In the Season 2 episode \u201cSundae,\u201d Sydney visits and orders the breakfast sandwich with longanisa (a Filipino sausage) and a hash brown, as well as the mushroom adobo and a mango tart. Kwon is at the Ever dinner and discusses how she doesn\u2019t necessarily like cooking, but knew that she always wanted to \u201cmake things for people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDaniel Boulud<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Ren\u00e9 Redzepi<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Dave Beran<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Paulie James<\/span><\/h3>\n
Thomas Keller<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Grant Achatz<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Kevin Boehm<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Wylie Dufresne<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Christina Tosi<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Will Guidara<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Anna Posey<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Malcolm Livingston II<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Rosio Sanchez<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Genie Kwon<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n