The Bear: A Raw Look at the Food Service Industry
The critically acclaimed TV series ‘The Bear’ serves a compelling look at the intense world of restaurant kitchens and the challenges faced by food service workers.
Content Warning: This article contains discussions of substance abuse, toxic workplaces, and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Since its 2022 premiere, the hit Hulu series The Bear has earned critical acclaim for its raw portrayal of trauma, substance abuse, grief, healing and the struggles of small business ownership. Set and filmed in Chicago, the series stars Shameless alum Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown after a successful stint in New York following his brother Michael’s suicide. Carmy takes over Micheal’s sandwich shop and attempts to transform it into something new.
The ensemble cast includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich, Michael’s best friend and the restaurant’s manager, who is still processing his grief; Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu, a classically trained chef who becomes Carmy’s ambitious sous-chef; Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero, a tough line cook who softens as the story unfolds; Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks, the restaurant’s dedicated baker and pastry chef; and Abby Elliott as Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto, Carmy and Michael’s sister and co-owner of the restaurant.
Across its first three seasons, The Bear follows Carmy and his staff as they convert Michael’s modest sandwich shop in the River North neighborhood into a Michelin-level fine dining establishment. But the series doesn’t just focus on the food. The characters’ personal traumas frequently boil over into the kitchen. Carmy, in particular, wrestles with the lingering effects of toxic work environments, experiencing panic attacks and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as he tries to create something healthier for himself and his team.
The Bear has been renewed for a fourth season, expected to premiere this summer. Each of the first three seasons holds a Rotten Tomatoes score above 80%. Former restaurant workers have praised the show’s realism, capturing the chaos and emotional weight of kitchen life in a way that’s hard to watch.
Pressure Cooker: Life in the Kitchen
Many aspects of The Bear focus on Carmy’s backstory during his time in New York, including being berated by former bosses and having his food sabotaged by co-workers.
A Bon Appétit report detailed former restaurant employees’ experiences in toxic work environments, with many saying the series affirmed their decision to leave the industry.
“I know I didn’t get far enough in the series to see where it wrapped up,” said former New York chef Riley Redfern, who couldn’t finish the pilot episode.
“I was like, I can’t have this in my brain.”
In the same report, private chef and Chopped winner Alix Baker said even the trailer for the series triggered memories.
“I feel like I’d be watching the unhealthy work environment I chose to leave,” said Baker, who opted not to watch the series.
The article’s author, Genevieve Kim, also recounted her own experiences working in toxic kitchens.
“It was the most accurate portrayal of life in a restaurant kitchen that I’ve seen in a while,” Kim wrote.
“It was so accurate that it was triggering: the details of spilling a whole Cambro of veal stock, your peers hiding your mise en place, and still others turning up the stove when you weren’t looking. It reminded me a little too much of what it was like to fend for myself in a chaotic, cutthroat kitchen.”
Kim also recalled a sous-chef once burning her with a hot blowtorch.
Research shows the restaurant industry has one of the highest turnover rates in the U.S. In 2024, the turnover rate was 79.6 percent—consistent with a 10-year trend—driven by factors such as poor management, low pay, lack of recognition, and hostile work environments.
Humanizing the Workforce
Carmy’s ongoing struggle with alcoholism and Michael’s addiction to opioids in The Bear reflect the real-life challenges faced by many restaurant employees. A report from Psychology Today found that restaurant and hotel workers have the highest rates of substance abuse among all industries. Specifically, restaurant workers have the third-highest rates of heavy drinking—behind only construction workers and miners.
This aligns with a study by the American Addiction Center, which found that 31% of restaurant employees admitted to using opioids while at work, and 28% reported using cocaine on the job. More than 12.6% of food service workers in the study said they had been intoxicated for an entire shift at least once. Three in 10 reported being caught using substances on the job but said they faced no consequences. Fewer than one in five said they were fired after being caught.
“Management absolutely knows employees are drinking before the job, on the job, after the job,” said Steve Sarin, a former restaurant employee in Colorado who now works in communications for a substance use disorder (SUD) organization, in an interview with Restaurant Business.
“As long as they can still work, they’re not going to say anything,” Sarin added, explaining that drugs like cocaine and alcohol were often normalized in restaurants, with both staff and management aware.
“I’d be shocked to find a restaurant where that didn’t happen routinely today—the use of alcohol and illegal substances. It’s become systemized. It’s no longer stigmatized. It’s so prevalent that it’s easy to indulge.”
Regionally, restaurant workers in the Midwest reported the highest percentage of substance use on the job, with 10% saying they used drugs during most of their shifts. The South followed at 7.2%, while the Northeast and West reported 3.9% and 3.8%, respectively—highlighting a significant regional gap.
Many have pointed to the stress of the industry as a reason workers turn to substances, often as a coping mechanism.
“I don’t want to say that it’s an environment that makes you drink. But certainly stress, adrenaline, [the] fast pace—and then it just kind of stops,” said Steve Palmer, founder of Ben’s Friends, a restaurant industry-specific support group similar to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), in a report.
“That leads to people feeling like they need a release.”
Others in the industry, such as North Carolina chef Scott Crawford, have shared their own struggles with substance abuse and recovery—showing that it is possible to remain in the industry and get treatment.
“The whole lifestyle—you’re in a place that has alcohol. There’s always alcohol in the kitchen, behind the bar, and after the adrenaline of an awesome service, it was typically followed by chasing that buzz with alcohol and then usually cocaine,” Crawford told Nation’s Restaurant News.
“That was just how we rolled for a really long time, and it got dark for me. I wanted to challenge the notion that you can’t be sober in this industry, and I did.”
A 2018 NPR report further highlighted efforts to combat substance abuse in the food service industry, including the founding of Ben’s Friends in 2016. The group was launched after South Carolina chef Ben Murray died by suicide following a long struggle with depression and addiction. The organization aims to offer targeted support for food service workers navigating similar issues.
“You need someone who gets that, and understands the specific pressure of being surrounded by alcohol and revelry and drugs all the time,” said Kat Kinsman, founder of Chefs With Issues, an organization focused on destigmatizing mental health in the industry.
Broken Plates and Broken Wages: The Reality of Restaurant Wages
Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that food service employees earn some of the lowest wages in the United States. In 2018, more than 11% of workers in the food industry were enrolled in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income households purchase groceries.
“Food workers are about two and a half times more likely to be food insecure than workers in other sectors of the economy, which is so ironic,” said Jose Oliva, director of the advocacy group HEAL Food Alliance, in a report.
“They’re the ones creating the food that we all eat.”
A 2013 study by the University of California, Berkeley, found that 52% of families of fast-food workers were enrolled in one or more public assistance programs, compared with 25% of the overall workforce. Even full-time hours haven’t been sufficient, as many fast-food workers putting in 40 or more hours a week still rely on public assistance. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, despite the rising cost of living.
More recent research by Northwestern University and Rutgers University has found that minimum wage violations are on the rise in cities like Los Angeles. In 2024, one in four workers in the region were illegally paid below the minimum wage, costing more than $44 million in lost wages annually across Southern California. More than 25% of fast-food workers in Greater Los Angeles were paid illegally low wages in 2024—eight times higher than the violation rate of 3% in 2009.
“When low-wage workers are underpaid by even a small percentage of their income, they face major hardships such as being unable to pay for rent, afford childcare or put food on the table,” said Daniel J. Galvin, director of Northwestern University’s Workplace Justice Lab, in a press release.
“It’s more important than ever that fast-food workers know their rights and how to exercise them.”
The Bear has resonated with audiences for its raw portrayal of life in the restaurant industry. As conversations continue, it highlights the harsh realities workers face, while calling attention to the need for change in kitchens across America.