Season three of , the Hulu darling that critics previously called “ ” and “an ,” did not bring its best this time around. The New York Times deemed it a ,” Variety said it was “ ,” and Vulture declared the third installment “ .” I agree — and I blame the food.
“The dishes have really taken a back seat in this season,” Amy McCarthy, a writer for Eater who recently , explains. “That’s maybe part of why it feels so messy.” In its early seasons, was exciting because it had culinary oomph.
The setting was the Original Beef of Chicagoland, an unpredictable world where anything could happen. You were drawn in by the Italian beef, cuddled in bread, smeared with spicy giardiniera, soaked in jus. When Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) discovered she had what it took to be a serious chef by making mashed potatoes, you wanted to dip a spoon in the pot.
Watching Marcus (Lionel Boyce) perfect his chocolate cake was a peaceful meditation within the chaos of the restaurant. So this season, I kept waiting for the food to get intimate and come alive. Where was the French omelet that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) lovingly made for pregnant Nat (Abby Elliott) in season two, with potato chips on top? Marcus’s doughnut he lovingly toiled on to a level of precise excellence in season one? The explosive and disastrous Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traumatic family memory that Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) repurposed into a masterpiece? In the first two seasons, through the food, .