The , and the popular show about Carmy (played by Jeremy Allen White) — a talented James Beard award-winning chef who returns home to Chicago to run the family restaurant after the passing of his brother — is imparting some serious wisdom about fine dining etiquette on its viewers. In the third episode of season three, a customer orders a dish with "no mushrooms," and when sous chef Sydney (played by Ayo Edebiri) asks if the request is due to an allergy or a modification, head chef Carmy protests, "It doesn't f***ing matter — if he doesn't like mushrooms, he doesn't have to eat the mushrooms, but the dish makes no sense without the mushrooms." This leads to a heated argument and, in true "The Bear" fashion, results in a physical altercation between Carmy and Richie — Carmy's late brother's best friend and the restaurant's de facto manager (played by Ebon Moss-Bacharach).
While this scene is dramatized for entertainment purposes, head chef Carmy does have a point: Asking for a modification to a menu item that's been carefully crafted by a fine dining kitchen can result in tempers heating up to the boiling point. When visiting a fine dining establishment, there's an unspoken rule that you'll order the dish without modifications, which is how the chef designed the dish to be enjoyed. Foregoing certain ingredients can completely alter the flavor and experience.
Modifications can communicate serious disrespect to the chef In each season, that take time, countless taste-tes.
