Chef Matty Matheson Was A Major Part Of Making The Bear Believable
When "The Bear" premiered on Hulu last year, it collectively had us all on our knees, worshipping at the alter of Jeremy Allen White. Not only did the "Shameless" star sport some deliciously well-fitting (and insanely expensive) white t-shirts on the show for his role as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, but his kitchen skills were just as appetizing. White actually spent about a month gaining culinary competency working and learning in the kitchens of actual chefs.
Taking on a culinary skill set — though impressive — isn't that surprising when you consider just how much of "The Bear" takes place in the back kitchen of Carmy's family-owned Italian beef restaurant. White needed to be convincing as an award-winning chef who returned to his hometown Chicago to run the restaurant after his brother died by suicide. In order to make sure that White and his co-stars maintained their facades as culinary aficionados once filming started, the show's creator Christopher Storer employed another tactic to help keep his cooks in line. Canadian chef Matty Matheson was hired to help the actors maintain an authentic culinary air in the kitchen of The Original Beef.
Matty Matheson is a man known as much for his culinary prowess as for his distinct, fun-loving personality. The chef has done everything from opening restaurants to appearing on television and YouTube shows. Recently, he's even started his own clothing company, Rosa Rugosa, which seeks to make clothing described on their website as "for work or sport." He is a man of many talents, and he was more than happy to bring those talents to the set of "The Bear."
The real chef who's calling all the shots
A recent article for Complex details how Matty Matheson got involved with the quirky cooking drama. Matheson was brought on as a co-producer for the series, ensuring the actors on the show were behaving as real chefs would. He told the New York Times, "It's just one of those things where I'm trying to give them what they need."
Matheson also appears in "The Bear" as Neil Fak, a handyman for Carmy's restaurant, and in many ways, this is a fitting role for the man whose job it is on set to fix the way the show's actors interact in the fictional kitchen. He explained to the New York Times that he helped the cast appear believable. He would tell them things like, "Hey you wouldn't say it like that" and "The way you're holding the pan is kinda wack," all hoping to create a more authentic viewing experience, down to the kitchen lingo. And for the most part, his guidance really paid off. "The amazing thing is by the end of the season, the actors would be like, 'Yo, where's my knife?'," he told the Times.
Christopher Storer, the show's creator, told the Times, "Matty's been through it. He's seen every peak and every valley of small business. He was prepping his new restaurant as we were shooting so we had a direct line into what the chaos of opening a restaurant can be." Fans of the show know that Carmy is going to need all the help he can get in season two as he sets out to rebuild the beef restaurant into something his late brother would be proud of, and we can only hope that Matheson will return to help guide the cast along the way.