1: Hopes for Season Three + Family Spaghetti

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome to our podcast. I'm Lucy. And I'm Peter. And this is Let It Rip, The Bear Cast, Episode 1. This episode we're talking about why it is we're here, our hopes for Season 3 and sharing our first attempt at a Cookery podcast.

[00:00:35] We did attempt a Cookery podcast last week. How did that go? We recorded stuff and now people are going to hear it. I think that's the point. So today's episode is the first of this podcast as you may have

[00:00:48] guessed and as such it's going to be a little bit different. We're going to do a bit of an introduction to who we are, why we're here. Talk a little about our very recent rewatch of The Bear, Seasons 1 and 2 in preparation for this podcast in Season 3.

[00:01:03] We will share our cooking segment for your delictation. We've got a little bit of listener feedback and then that will be us for this week's episode. From next week onwards, when the season commences, we'll be going into a more formal podcastic format that you might

[00:01:17] recognise from the other shows across our network. That probably leads us quite nicely into who we are and why we're here. So those of you listening may recognise my voice. I'm Lucy. I'm the co-host on podcasticas

[00:01:28] The Cast of Us, nearly called it Walking Dead Cast there. I have been for the last few years and this is my first attempt at podcasting really without Jason. So here we are. I'm breaking free and I'm here with my lovely partner, Peter. Tell us a little

[00:01:44] bit about yourself. So I'm Peter. I'm Lucy's partner. A small elite group of you might recognise my voice but not from podcasting quality or otherwise. You've been on the pod a few times. That is true. That is true and honestly I felt like standards had slipped.

[00:02:05] People like your voice. We've got family all about your voice. Imagine living in that hill everyday Lucy. Oh, I was quite astonished. So a little bit about us. We are a couple in our middle years.

[00:02:20] I don't know what are your 30s and 40s? We're not old. We're not young. We're somewhere in the middle. We live in the UK with our two very delightful cats and we really like cooking.

[00:02:32] We really, really do and I think that was certainly one of the things that initially attracted us to this show. I'm sure that's not surprising for a lot of people but I

[00:02:44] think the show has a lot of interesting things to say about how we relate to each other through cooking and I think it probably caused us both to reflect on that. I think so. I mean you're in this house, you're the cook. I would say I do cook.

[00:02:58] I cook more than I used to for sure but it's definitely your domain, I would say. My domain? Your domain. I marked it out. You marked it out. Talk a little bit about your relationship with food and cooking. Is it something you enjoy?

[00:03:14] I think I really, really do. I think it's one of these things where we're very heavily influenced by our parents or just how we're brought. But often in a way that we don't really think about until we're doing it, some of those

[00:03:33] recipes or some of those quirks about how you do things. You only pick up by seeing other people do them time and time again and that sinks in in quite a deep way.

[00:03:46] Yeah. I think we talked a little bit about this so in our cookery segment that comes up a little later in the podcast we talked a little about how making this recipe had

[00:03:54] gone and our thoughts about it. One of the things that we spoke about was in the bearer, the way that Karmie reinterprets family recipes and that's something that comes up again and again throughout the show. I think this idea that recipes are

[00:04:08] fluid and you pass them on and you add your bits and pieces and you make it your own and then that becomes something that can be really evocative of memories, good and bad of particular times in your life, in particular

[00:04:20] comforts and feelings that you had once upon a time. Yeah, I think that's absolutely right and obviously lots of people more eloquently than I've expressed how flavours and textures and things like that can take you back to a place but I think it's inescapable with

[00:04:35] cooking. I think one of the reasons that cooking can be intimidating is your hand at a recipe book and told right okay you've got all the instructions you can cook this thing and it's not true. It's like being handed a

[00:04:47] pamphlet that says this is how to cycle a bike and then being shown a thing and being told to balance because so much of it's sensory and textured and what's a simmer and you know when someone says pasta is al dente

[00:05:01] you go well how hard is it? Who is al dente? Yeah who is al dente and why is he calling himself Alfred? I should say that Peter did come through to the living room the other week just to show me a picture of

[00:05:11] different ways that water can boil. The difference between a simmer, a rolling boil and an actual boil so that's kind of conversations we occasionally find ourselves having. A real favourite of Lucy and I's was when we asked my mum for a recipe for a very very standard

[00:05:32] very very traditional Scottish treat not quite a candy I'm not sure how better to expect. Our Canadian friends would call it potato candy. They would call it potato candy now why would they call it potato candy? Well because what you're doing is you're making a fondant and you've

[00:05:47] got your icing sugar and you need some kind of liquid and what you mix into is potato and I know that sounds dreadful and that shows that you're a group of discerning people that understand that some things are weird. Only in Scotland would we make like

[00:06:02] literal sweet treats from potatoes yeah there's a lot to unpack there. So we set up my mum down and said right okay how do you how do you make this thing properly because of course when you've had one thing a very very specific way

[00:06:17] even if you go off and read someone else's recipe it's never as good. Your mum's version is always going to be the thing that defines that for you. So I asked her how do you make this and she said okay you get

[00:06:27] this amount of icing sugar and then you get a potato and I said so how big a potato how much potato do I need and she looked at me without a trace of irony and said you'll know

[00:06:40] and I said how will you know and she said you'll know you'll just know you'll just know and I've never made this thing in my life it wasn't one of these things where I looked over my shoulder and seen

[00:06:51] seen this potato so you know whether you're picturing a new potato or a baking potato I can't tell you but I can tell you's apparently I'll know maybe others will too. You did make it. I did and it was good yeah yeah it was nice and I

[00:07:06] did I know that might be more you must have because it tasted right yeah yeah there there was a bit about well it'll go green for a bit and then go white yeah it's literally that phrase you don't want to know how the sausage is made

[00:07:17] sometimes you don't want to know how your potato candy is made I would argue so I often I often think about that when you're not just when you're trying to explain and describe the experience of cooking but also explain how you get there it's

[00:07:31] so tied up in what other people have taught you through showing you and doing yeah and I think one of the things we want to be clear about upfront on the pod is this will be as much about cooking as it is about

[00:07:43] the bear and as much about our relationships with food as a society and as humans because I think that's such a big part of what makes the show work so we talk we'll talk a lot about things we've

[00:07:54] cooked things we've eaten things we've enjoyed we'll mention books I have a big collection of books about cookery books about people reflecting on their experiences with food food from across the world we have a vast collection of cookery books that we'll be referring to

[00:08:09] I will try and put this in the show notes for people who are interested for those who aren't um podcasting has an excellent chapters feature so you can just skip straight ahead to the yes chef and we can talk about the bear

[00:08:21] but it is it it just seemed very organic to us to talk about one of the things that we've enjoyed the most together which is cooking and food and adventures in the kitchen there's a real feeling of

[00:08:31] authenticity in the in the bear yeah and I think that makes it more more relatable isn't it strange to say that because in some ways it's so it's so heightened um we're we're not chefs no we've not worked in a kitchen hey I will say we did

[00:08:48] complete overcooked too which I'm told is an achievement especially for a couple hey we are still a couple we're still a couple who completed overcooked there are there are lots of people who have completed overcooked too there are not many people who are still in

[00:09:02] couples yes exactly so I wouldn't say we're not chefs we know if you throw it on the floor sometimes that's the most convenient place to put it to be yeah exactly for those of you who are unfamiliar

[00:09:15] overcooked as a video game in which you play two little quasi animal hybrid chefs running around the kitchen cooking for unknown customers and I would say the kitchen hygiene standards are pretty low not quite as low as like you know the bear before the inspection but but low

[00:09:30] yeah actually quite similar yeah it's quite similar atmosphere yeah yeah yeah um all right what was the best thing you ate this week well a top um a top one in our household is your surprisingly good ramen

[00:09:44] yes I do like to make a little fancy lunch on a friday and I made a nissen spicy ramen with an egg and some sautéed kale and some Trader Joe's everything but the bagel uh seeds sprinkled on it and a jammy egg

[00:10:00] it's pretty good yeah and some chit crispy chili oil yeah and some of these combinations may sound surprising but we're reckless genuinely genuinely they're fire they're lit they're really really good all right so in preparation for this podcast we have recently rewatched the

[00:10:17] bear seasons one through two uh the two that are available to currently view in preparation for this podcast we have rewatched seasons one and two of the bear which we watched for the first time last year

[00:10:30] how was it for you going back to the bear after a bit of a break and what did you think when you watched it all together again it's an interesting question because of course going in the first time you were

[00:10:44] getting that very very very rare treat I think which is watching a show that feels very original so that you don't you don't know or you don't feel like you know where it's going and so going back in I did I did

[00:10:59] wonder if it would lose some of that some of that excitement and I think what kept it going actually was I think that it's a surprisingly fast paced show like there's there's always an energy about it and I didn't

[00:11:13] feel I didn't feel that fell away no and I think we noticed some stuff that was rewarding the second time around like good lord in season one could those tomatoes be more prominent in any of the scenes like every

[00:11:24] scene where they're talking about money or a stress or Mikey there's a can of tomatoes and that moment in the first episode where karmie goes to make the spaghetti yeah and then throws the tin away and looking back you're like if he just opened that fucking tin

[00:11:39] the whole arc of the season wouldn't have happened and the stresses wouldn't have been there but I enjoyed that on a rewatch I enjoyed that frustration and that sort of nod to the audience that that

[00:11:49] there was something hidden there yeah that was a really that was a really nice touch and yeah I think the the effectiveness of that scene is going back in watching it can go whoa yeah but the fuck you've just thrown away quite a lot of money yeah

[00:12:03] and you see them or it's an interesting question isn't it is it is it foreshadowing how often you see those tins of tomatoes I think it probably is it's got to be because they're always there they're always on

[00:12:13] your mind because it would be such a worse reveal if it was like oh there's this cupboard of tomatoes you've not seen all season that have money in them it's it's the fact they've been under his notes the whole time but he hasn't brought himself to look

[00:12:26] I speaking personally speaking for both of us but mainly probably for me since we first watched it we've we've lost a friend and I think watching it through the lens of grief of having gone through a bereavement in the last year was

[00:12:40] quite different things landed differently for me and I felt I could understand a little bit more how season one is that grief journey for everyone how everyone is still so raw and the absence of Mikey like that's something that always struck me about

[00:12:54] the bear was how much of a character Mikey was before we ever saw him and I'd been spoiled that John Berndtthal was playing him so being a walking dead fan and being a big John Berndtthal fan I was like yes

[00:13:05] this could be perfect so I had this kind of image of him in my head and boy did he deliver but the way the show draws a character in his absence and the impact that's left on other people I think that's really remarkable

[00:13:17] it's a very sophisticated storytelling device yeah and it's partly a credit to John Berndtthal and partly to the writers no doubt as well that he feels like a much bigger presence in the show than I'm sure his screen time

[00:13:34] no I mean he in season one I think we see him tell the Bill Murray story and that's it like there's some flashes of him saying things but there's no feels seen like the most Berndtthal we get I think is in

[00:13:46] season two with of course fishes yeah I think that's I think that's a really good point a conversation we kept having was is the bearer comedy I laughed more than I thought going back at times at times it clearly it clearly is in season one episode four

[00:14:02] dogs the kids all oh yeah I can't remember what medication it has to have but the kids are all being drugged yeah I think it's um yeah it's one of it's a benzo essentially yeah it's a benzo that is very very sitcom

[00:14:19] when you sit that next to episode seven review oh awful awful 25 minutes of my life I mean brilliant but awful brilliant but awful so I think it's there's probably a relatively educated formal analysis that says this is the form of a comedy

[00:14:40] is it a dramedy is that one of those I think probably that's probably where it lands is dramedy yeah there are points I think where you do wonder where the lines are but I kind of like that because I think a lot of the rawest

[00:14:51] human emotion comes in these moments of hilarity or hilarity comes after these moments of great loss and great bereavement I was so tickled by how much everyone hates Pete I'd forgotten about this yes it is the glue that binds the family together is their absolute detesting of this

[00:15:09] bumbling nice man who just wants to fit in but did we ever get to the bottom of why they hate Pete? Nark Nark? Tuna casserole enough said um how did you feel about the food going back in was it as good as you remembered

[00:15:25] it made me really want one of those sandwiches well I don't know how to break it Peter but we do have like two pounds of beef in the freezer at the moment waiting for us to make it into sandwiches at a later date

[00:15:35] it's a pound each it's a pound each it's gonna be a lot of beef yeah it's a food it's a show that loves food I was really interested in I remember as part of my job a couple years ago we spoke about doing a

[00:15:49] an amateur food photography competition um someone pointed out I'm not being funny but most pictures of food look terrible like the pictures of food you see in cookery books have been treated they've been lit a certain way they've been covered in crap to make sure that they look

[00:16:02] good and I did sort of think about that because I think we all have this habit or have had this habit in the last 10 years of photographing our food and documenting what we're eating and I think in a way we've become more

[00:16:11] obsessed with like how it looks then how it actually tastes or how it makes us feel and I think one of the things this show does so well is it appeals to all as much as a television show can

[00:16:22] it appeals to all of the kind of sensory feelings of eating and one of the things I love is the way that the actors in the show all of them show their appreciation through facial expressions and silence and the way

[00:16:33] they react and respond to food I just think that's such a nice touch in how they get across this message of sort of great love and care through eating and I think I think I can flip that around a little you

[00:16:47] you said it's a show that loves food and I think almost almost always I think it's actually it's a show about people who love through food. Oh wasn't that pithy? That was so pithy. Okay tell me more. Obviously the the central archibol of this is

[00:17:08] Karmie who is grieving the death of his brother and many other characters are grieving his death as well but Karmie's grieving the death of his brother and he's trying to repair what he's lost or recover what he's lost through repairing the repairing his brother's restaurant and

[00:17:28] making it work and we learn especially in episode six of season two in fishes that he was trying to do this even before his brother's death and it's all of these characters in various ways are trying to express themselves and trying to care for each

[00:17:44] other through through food as a form of service essentially and they're doing that almost to their own destruction certainly you know certainly the cost of other things. I mean looking at Karmie the way his life is shot in his like crappy

[00:18:00] apartment with his like I mean it's not crappy apartments a nice apartment's very sparse with it's like oven full of Levi's there's always an Advil or a Tums or a packet of some kind of pharmaceutical behind him not to the extent that Karmie is an

[00:18:15] addict or a user which I think is a really interesting and clever choice that the show had to not have Karmie go down that path as well but it shows you he's not a well man he's constantly stressed constantly has heartburn constantly taking painkillers smoking not sleeping

[00:18:31] like he's he's very badly damaged by his life and the things that have happened to him is he a little bitch? He's a little bitch. He's a little bitch. And to all to all the little bitches out there that does not mean that you

[00:18:47] cannot be great. Yeah I know. You can be great. You can be both. You can be both. You can be both. Who for you is the MVP in the bear? It's so tempting to say to say John Byrne thought

[00:19:01] but I don't think it is. I have this strong suspicion that when the bear eventually wraps that we'll look back Yvonne Mossback and be really impressed by his arc because I think if I had only seen season one I doubt I really doubt I would have

[00:19:24] said that but they really they really let him grow gradually in a way that and in a way that makes episodes like Forks feel really rewarding. Forks man. And I think mostly earned now I suppose I suppose I should you know I should qualify that a little bit

[00:19:43] by saying in Forks the speed at which he flips over feels very fast not just in terms of his change of heart because you know you can have a you can have a really striking experience that

[00:19:57] affects you but the fact the fact that he not only changes his mind but becomes skilled in the process but I think maybe maybe the show knows that one of the things that Lucy and I spoke about

[00:20:11] after we watched Forks that we hadn't we hadn't picked up on the first time we watched that episode but maybe maybe some of you did what was some of the uses of music and direction to give parts of the episode the feeling of genre films that

[00:20:27] you could imagine Richie relating to so this this one's much more straightforward the first few minutes of the episode it's a horror movie yeah it feels like a horror movie that that's immediately how you're reading it later on I'm convinced that Richie's in an action movie

[00:20:43] yeah and so I think to some some parts of that episode are almost a fantasy almost wish fulfillment for for Richie but I think watching them again watching those two seasons closer together I thought there

[00:20:55] were a couple of things that make it feel much more earned one is seeing fishes before Forks where you see Richie at his best yeah with his lovely wife I think Tiff who's played by Gileon Jacobs who I think is the partner of Christopher

[00:21:10] Story who created and directs a lot of the bear and is wonderful in that role and you see him at this kind of high point in his life where he's looking to better himself and he's saying things like I don't

[00:21:20] want to work at the bear forever I want to do real things you also see hints throughout that he is actually quite good with people and he is able to I don't know it reminds me a

[00:21:29] little bit of Michael Scott in the office in that one of the things that differentiated the US office from the UK office was that Michael Scott was actually quite good at his job he was good at being a salesman he

[00:21:39] wasn't good at being a manager but he was good at being a salesman and I think with Richie there are hints throughout the show that he is does actually have some skills and one of the things I really loved is

[00:21:49] they really play into um Richie being quite a sci-fi fantasy nerd like he often has references that are very off the beaten track like there was one I had to ask you about was it Siddhartha or something he's

[00:21:59] talking about some Buddhist mythology and I'm like how the what so I just feel like with Richie there's more to it and I think the other thing that happens in Forks that's really interesting is he gets

[00:22:10] although it's very painful he gets closure with Tiff because she's moved on she's engaged she's that door has closed and although that's painful I think there's kind of a catharsis in that which of course

[00:22:23] is soundtrack by Taylor Swift love story and what I personally feel is one of the best uses of a musical cue in television but we may differ on this because Pierre is less of a Taylor Swift fan um the music in this show though

[00:22:37] brilliant any particular music use that stand out for you I think it made me appreciate REM again yes bit of obscure REM as well not the not the big ones yeah bit of strange currencies so for you Richie is the MVP

[00:22:54] I think I think that I will be proven right by by history of this who for you though I think he's he's a clear winner I think his performance he's one of the people who's consistently hilarious without sometimes without meaning to be

[00:23:10] in this show um but I do love iOedabiri as Sydney I think Sydney has a really really interesting arc and quite a heartfelt one and one of the things that was really emphasized to me when we rewatch season two was how important her

[00:23:26] presence is for Karmie and how she kind of pulls him out of the rut I think if Sydney hadn't walked into the bearer that day he wouldn't have had an ally to make the changes that he has made and I love

[00:23:37] Sydney's relationship with Tina that is one of my favorite beats in the story is that Tina actually grows to love and respect Sydney and want to become better because she's so fierce at the start and so kind of scary

[00:23:49] and then they grow into this kind of really respectful relationship between the two of them yeah I think that's I think that's right and I think in those on those first couple of episodes it's kind of hard for Tina because she's being so

[00:24:05] mean so mean to mean to everybody but you know Sydney is really rewarded by by that patience and I think you really you really feel for Tina in I can't remember what episode this is but she she takes a piece of food to Sydney to taste

[00:24:22] in season one and says something to the effect of you know go on tell me to a ship yeah and she doesn't and I think the the actor in that scene does such a beautiful job there of conveying all the vulnerability she has

[00:24:38] and how really authentically happy yeah she is when when when she's valued yeah because she is and I love the kind of storyline in season two with her in Ibra going off to culinary school and

[00:24:53] Ibra takes a kind of different path and but he comes back and I love that that was a beat that I really loved because I always remember in dating myself you're mad men there was a character was it Saul disappeared he was a character who was outed as

[00:25:07] being gay and there was this very like sad scene where he's outed by a member of the company and then you just never see him again is that his name I'm pretty sure you're right yeah

[00:25:20] and I was worried with Ibra that he was going to walk off into the night and we would never see him again but the thought that he's at the window handing out the sandwiches is very pleasing to me yeah and I think what you

[00:25:30] what you see fairly fairly consistently at different levels or those characters who do get centered are all seen dealing with loss and change in different ways and and Ibrahim kind of sticks his head in the sand

[00:25:48] for a while and I think many maybe all of us at different times have been paralyzed by that fear of something oh yeah for sure just feel that instinct to hide and it's really contrasted with with Tina who in the same moment with the same

[00:26:04] opportunity is so empowered and excited by it but she sings karaoke yeah but we don't we don't all have that experience no we don't we don't we haven't even spoken about the Copenhagen of it all

[00:26:16] oh how much she wants to go to Copenhagen I would see if we could record a podcast for you from a houseboat in Copenhagen I would be so happy um and the first well not maybe not the first but one of a

[00:26:27] huge line of amazing guest stars in the bear will pull to her in that role who's great who's great and then we get we get Olivia Coleman we get I mean fishes is just an absolute smorgasbord

[00:26:39] huh see how I made it scandy of guest stars including I think one of the best bits from the whole series of John Malini's monologue when he has to deliver a grace at the table oh Malini

[00:26:51] he's so good in that scene and I think that's that's another point in favor of the yes this is this is still a comedy yeah you know at the same time as Jamie Lee Curtis is is phenomenal phenomenal performance incredible yeah

[00:27:10] you know just just startling and at the same time as as she is falling apart and we're we're watching how this is affecting sugar oh really really understanding so much about that character somehow they still have John Malini sitting on just

[00:27:30] just the right side of not being John Malini yeah and being being genuinely funny and getting those two things to sit together without one of them ruining the other oh it's wonderful it's I think very hard all while like Bob Odenkirk's being real mean

[00:27:46] I can't get over that it's Bob Odenkirk um it's just fantastic and I think ultimately um we would like to go back and do a episode by episode rewatch and and get guests on to talk about these episodes because for me going back and rewatching was just

[00:28:02] it was so enjoyable and I'm so pumped for this upcoming season but before we get into our hopes and dreams for season three what's your highlight of the bear in the first two seasons what's the bit that

[00:28:13] you always think like that that was the peak it's it's tricky because you can I think I think an easy way to break it down a little bit is you can go back to the bear and you can you can look at the highs and

[00:28:25] the lows and because there are you know those those highs are really high and those lows well I mean guess where the lows are yeah and I think with all of that in mind I think my my favorite high probably probably is that moment

[00:28:44] with with Tina in season one where the switch flips and you see her have this moment of such reward and I think that's really really just very very beautiful against that the the lows that you need to make that work

[00:28:59] probably any of a any of a thousand moments in in fishes are probably probably comparable but the part of the reason that I wanted to approach it that way or what made me think of it was that I was doing a bit very perfunctory

[00:29:16] research coming into this recording and I was looking to see okay what the top rated episodes of the bear interesting and as many people may already know because yeah I think it's how a lot of people feel they are forks and fishes

[00:29:31] yeah and they sit together on the very complimentary fashion yeah and I think some of those highs I have a theory from forks about where you might sit on a high from the bear Romeo take me yes exactly and that wouldn't have the same

[00:29:51] meaning if you didn't see all the things that were just about to fall apart for Richie in fishes and had fallen apart by season one so I think that's my answer that was so much more thorough than mine I'm just

[00:30:06] like I like to win this game too no I think highs and lows I found watching fishes again knowing what was coming really interesting and I think for me the moment where sugar asks her mum are you okay at the table oh I couldn't I was in

[00:30:24] floods I was like no this is so bad this is so bad and understanding sugars character a little more even how she gets that nickname is so awful like it's a sweet nickname but it's a brutal brutal reason so that's probably like the the low moment of

[00:30:37] I mean low in terms of like where the show takes you emotionally rather than that was a terrible bit of the show for highs I think you know forks is is a winner but I think the moment I'd forgotten about this but the

[00:30:48] moment in the finale of season two where Richie steps up to the plate and starts directing tables and manages to do it yeah and there's this moment of everyone being like oh no no and there's this you know they keep it hanging

[00:30:59] there's minutes past where you're like well seconds past where you're like oh god he's gonna fumble it he's gonna fuck it up and he actually manages and there's a kind of a heartbreak in that because karmie is locked in the

[00:31:08] fridge and it becomes clear that karmie is not needed to make this restaurant run you know he has assembled a great team and that you if I was karmie locked in the fridge I think I would kind of want

[00:31:17] everything to go a bit wrong because you'd want to feel like you were important oh yeah isn't it isn't the worst when you come back he's like how do things go and you say everyone's like actually fine

[00:31:25] and you're like oh no yeah no oh no but that's kind of the point of that season isn't it he's he's not quite as there uh-oh as uncle jimmy says well I think yes yes and yes and no a little bit on that one because everything is so

[00:31:39] broken especially for the first half of season one and one of the things that the karmie tells us explicitly that he wants to do is create a create a sense of calm and order in i wonder why in the kitchen and as luci and I have discussed

[00:31:57] in the past when you watch fishes you think oh that's why that matters to him yeah but the reward of all that is the just as you say he's created a great team so yeah while karmie in that moment in that

[00:32:11] episode is seeing all this as a failure in a disaster actually the the machine that he's put together with I mean with well mostly said I think yeah actually put together yeah but it's working yeah and I don't I

[00:32:24] don't clearly he doesn't realize that in season two will he realize that at some point in season three maybe maybe that's one of my hopes yeah I mean let's yeah let's let's go there let's talk about hopes for season

[00:32:33] three I have to be honest I don't know how it's not one of those shows where I'm like I hope so-and-so get together and I hope this happens like I'm genuinely just I hope that things continue to be generally on the up

[00:32:44] but I get the feeling there's going to be some more curveballs thrown our way I think it's trickier going into season three because it I think it's harder for both of us to describe okay what's the hook what's the premise

[00:32:56] for season three and I can tell you but it doesn't it doesn't feel as defined you know season one is trying to rescue karmie's brother's restaurant season two is trying to start a new restaurant and season three is

[00:33:08] trying to have a restaurant and yeah I mean yes that's a premise but it doesn't feel quite quite as distinct but I think that we've been given nothing but confidence by what the show has seen so far

[00:33:21] I think on the one hand we're we'll all be hoping that we just stay in those highs but the lows are so good well completely fucking forgotten marcus's mum's nurse was on the phone in the final season scenes of season two

[00:33:37] I know I don't want anything bad to happen to marcus ever but that's that's an obvious one yeah yeah and it clearly ties back to that central theme of there has to be some sacrifice

[00:33:51] yeah there does and I think the what what sucks but is necessary for the story that the show wants to tell is marcus hasn't really had much in the way of sacrifice compared with compared with the other characters

[00:34:05] he's just been on a nice steady upward arc it's just been it's just been nice hanging out with him he just learned about about more advanced baking and then just started doing it and it turned out he was great at it and then he went on

[00:34:21] the best work trip ever yeah went on the best work trip ever didn't even I had it in my head that said like really badly rejected him and I don't think it's actually a definitive no for those two

[00:34:31] I got the sense said what didn't really understand what she was responding she wasn't listening yeah I think yeah she wasn't paying attention and I suppose it's a little unclear whether when she's not paying attention it's because she's just not interested in that approach or whether it's just

[00:34:47] not registering at all I think I chose to read it as she just wasn't listening and she misunderstood because Sid is very consistently nice I think she's very considerate to the other characters so I don't think most of the time I would expect her to be callous

[00:35:04] no to to marcus I agree with that I think for me I hope that I hope that Sid and carme don't get together which is something a lot of people seem to be gunning for and I don't want that to happen

[00:35:15] I thought I would want Claire to piss off forever because I can find that kind of female character a bit annoying sometimes it's bordering on manic pixie dream girl but actually re-watching season two I quite like to

[00:35:29] clear and I sort of want to see where molly gordon goes next with that character I think if we're going for predictions my prediction is that carme will have to wrestle with choosing between being a great chef or

[00:35:42] being a happy well-rounded person and I think what the show has told us so far as carme is not going to choose being a happy well-rounded person so I don't think it's looking good he can't have it all

[00:35:53] yeah I'm just really I'm here for the ride I'm just excited to see where it goes do you think we're going to be cooking some cool stuff you and me yeah I mean we

[00:36:01] made a promise that we would try and cook food from the show so I feel like our game is gonna have to be raised somewhat I mean we have we have so much beef there's so much beef we have so much beef we're gonna have to cook it

[00:36:12] I think the cats are going to be having tiny beef sandwiches I think that's the only way we we we're gonna work this out the only way we're gonna get through this we have been searching for

[00:36:21] importers of certain kinds of pickle yeah jardinaires so that's not a thing here yeah that doesn't exist it appears to be quite a midwest thing any listeners in the UK who can hook us up with a jardinare supplier would be great we can make it

[00:36:35] ourselves but the quantities are always like five million carrots and a liter of vinegar and we're like I just don't know that we're ready to commit to jardinair in this way so yeah ironically Peter's sister does live

[00:36:46] in Chicago so we could just ask her to post some over no this problem is insurmountable no this problem is insurmountable there's no way around it we're just gonna have to quit yeah excellent well with that I think

[00:36:59] we should segue perhaps into our cooking segment which we prepared earlier lovely so please enjoy listeners imagine you're traveling back to a week ago a week ago a week ago when when Lucy and I had decided to learn

[00:37:11] about editing a podcast by recording ourselves live cooking keep that in mind when you when you hear a quality of editing that Jason would I would say have a coronary act to be honest I think I think we might be on the bad list

[00:37:28] and he's coming to Scotland in a couple weeks so if he survives it if he survives listening to our cooking segment I have this image of Jason ripping off his headphones quitting the podcast forever just tipping out of his chair

[00:37:41] probably to the left I don't know why he's falling to the left but he is well enjoy and we'll be back shortly with some listener feedback right we're live in Lucy and Peter's kitchen where tonight Peter is taking the reins and he is going

[00:38:00] to be cooking Mikey's family spaghetti from the bear supervised obviously closely by me Peter top me through the ingredients you have in front of you so we have two tins of finely chopped tomatoes I think we were supposed to

[00:38:13] have crushed but we couldn't find any so we think that crushed might be more of an American thing they don't seem to exist over here so we went for finely chopped yeah yeah so just try to imagine the sound of crushed rather than finely

[00:38:25] chopped tomatoes in a minute we have some olive oil we have some spaghetti we have a controversially large amount of basil yeah I'm not gonna lie I think it's too much basil but here we are basil's great like no think about pesto it's

[00:38:37] just it's mostly just basil and fat and it's brilliant okay and we have garlic and we we think we're just gonna crush it there seems to be some controversy about whether we should be chopping it or crushing it when we've

[00:38:51] looked at recipes for this but we're gonna crush it it seems like an infused the oil situation I think so and in terms of quantities I notice we've only got five bits of garlic can you explain there's only two of us there's only so many ounces

[00:39:05] of tomato sauce we can eat for the purposes of audio that's very true that's retreat and how much money did you find when you're opening the cans well stay tuned you're about to find out oh yeah we haven't opened the cans yet

[00:39:17] are you thinking let the garlic steep for a bit then add the basil yeah yeah because the the basil will go in for hardly any time at all the garlic can hide out a little bit longer oh I'm gonna see if I can get some audio of this

[00:39:33] yum that's the sound of some garlic making friends with some oil in the pot the basil's very excited to be in the pan I don't want to backseat Cuckoo but I would

[00:39:42] turn the heat down maybe a little well we are we're a team it just seems like it just to prevent things catching so we're cooking on a gas hob which is becoming rarer I feel like more people are cooking on induction and electric these days apparently

[00:40:01] they might be bad for you but they seem a lot more fun I'm high as a kite how about you who are you what's happening I like us because it means you can kind of be more fine about what

[00:40:13] kind of heat you're using at any given point at our apartment in Canada we had a pretty bad cooker didn't we yeah yeah we had an electric stove there and it was frustrating at times yeah

[00:40:24] it's also the one that like appears in like every sitcom set in North America I'm like that's the cooker we used to have like from the 90s um there was also a very bleak point

[00:40:33] in our existence in Canada where we couldn't really eat any pasta because we didn't have any pots and pans what was the worst thing that we tried to cook in the oven using only oven heat I think cooking

[00:40:44] trying to make a bowl of pasta by by cooking it in the oven that was not uh yeah that was pretty bleak it wasn't great it was fine it felt kind of cool that we'd done it but also

[00:40:56] should we have done it should we have done it no one asked should they oh my god there's so much money in here there is I'm sad to report no money in here um so is

[00:41:13] it just going to go straight in yes this is going to be noisy okay here we go yeah here we go here we go you ever sold that I know I know I was so confident I was I think that's my bad for putting the heat down

[00:41:27] I think one of my takeaways from um watching the beer is aren't enormous pots and pans just cooler than regular sensible sized ones I believe I've read science about this though

[00:41:39] that if the pasta can move around it cooks better so not only are we cool but we're right why are you so afraid of actually heating the sauce up oh well I have heated it up I think

[00:41:49] you're supposed to like bring it hang on I'm gonna go and check the recipe so we have made way too much sauce for two people so we've siphoned off half which we're gonna freeze

[00:41:59] and we've reduced the other half way way down um so it's kind of like a tomato puree now it's quite good um we've both tasted it and so far my main impression is tomato soup which

[00:42:08] is not necessarily a bad thing what about you no I think I think that's dead right and I think something we might talk about a bit more is our own our own thoughts about what you might choose

[00:42:16] to do with the recipe but I think you know at the moment super simple all the ingredients are nice so it's tasty definitely no trouble to make which is I think part of what attracted it as to it as our

[00:42:26] first one I've just taken the heat off the tomatoes actually because the water has just boiled for the pasta and that's going to take about 10 minutes and I actually think we're at the stage

[00:42:36] of reduction where probably shouldn't go much further so I'm gonna throw some pasta in I feel like I'm deviating from the bear here because I'm using timers on my phone and not a like sauce

[00:42:43] covered kitchen timer okay Peter what do you have in your hands I'm holding our big exciting bowl of pasta here and I'm pleased with the way it looks I'm excited to try it we'll report back

[00:42:55] after the taste test so it's 845 on a Saturday night I'm sitting across from Peter at our dining table um our little Tabby cat Molly is sitting right next to us because apparently she wants

[00:43:07] to be part of this podcast we have just eaten our Mikey's family spaghetti and I'm interested Peter to know what you think you know it definitely tasted like more than the some of its parts which

[00:43:20] I which I actually quite liked I think something that we spoke about a bit while we were making it quite a lot while we were making it but obviously the listeners haven't heard this

[00:43:31] is we spent a lot of time going back and forth looking at recipes on the internet even even just looking at the show because one of the things that really interested me was that

[00:43:42] Karmie doesn't follow Mikey's recipe when he starts to make it um you see half a white onion a yellow onion sorry two halves of a yellow onion and some butter in the pan before he opens the tomatoes

[00:43:55] and then of course we get sidetracked with what happens when the tomatoes get opened exactly and of course when you look at Mikey's recipe card it's just tomato garlic and basil yeah and it

[00:44:07] interested me that we went around and we looked at a bunch of recipes online all of which you know sounded great but almost every time people were trying to add things uh we we spoke about adding

[00:44:21] adding in chili and I think um a lot of people were trying to tweak it and improve it and I think even within the narrative of the show Karmie's sort of trying to tweak it and improve it

[00:44:34] yeah I think so for context um we're using as our reference point an article from The Guardian from August of last year by Chris Godfrey called Hell in a Ham milkshake I tried to make eight

[00:44:45] dishes from the bear it nearly broke me it's a great article linked to in the show notes um there were other options online there's a pretty good Buzzfeed article about the spaghetti

[00:44:55] and there's also Matty Matheson who plays Fac and Coco who's one of the consultant producers on the show do their version of a spaghetti pomodoro but it was much fussier than the one we'd envisaged

[00:45:08] so we went with Chris Godfrey's version which is just the three ingredients yeah and I think I quite like the the the version that Mikey Mikey has is really really really simple you know

[00:45:23] it's as straightforward as that recipe could really be which which feels quite true to him when you see Karmie doing it you know he's it's fussy it's fussy isn't it yeah absolutely and I

[00:45:35] I like I don't know if the producers and or the writers intended to do that but it was it was nice to to see their own characters coming coming through and I think it's worth saying it's also

[00:45:49] just it's really tasty it's a good it's a good recipe it is we've got half a carton of it in the freezer now I think what I was thinking for future is it's such a good base for like you could use

[00:45:59] I think you could use it as like a pizza base um I would if I was gonna jazz it up and cook it for myself when I'd probably add some chilli into it and maybe maybe another green herb maybe

[00:46:11] some parsley um Peter's giving me the eye because I actually own a book called A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce by Massimo Montanari who's an Italian professor and knows a bit about

[00:46:23] culinary history I've not read it yet I felt very stupid that I had not read it before this episode but I had a little peek there while Peter was putting the dishes through to the kitchen

[00:46:33] and the the guru of all Italian cooking Pellegrino Artusi cooks a really similar version of this at the turn of the 20th century is when his cookery book becomes part of Italian culture

[00:46:46] and his is way way more complex than Mikey's version it's very like there's parsley there's celery there's other bits and pieces going on there and I don't know I liked it for its simplicity I think

[00:46:58] the one that we made tonight yeah and I think we were we were really attracted to it for our first kind of foray into making a recipe from the beer because it was it was the simplest one it was

[00:47:11] the most accessible one I think by I think by a long way we do currently in our freezer have like a couple of pounds of beef for lunch to make the sandwiches but we just didn't feel quite

[00:47:23] brave enough this week yeah yeah and I think we also we were we were looking in their their ingredients that aren't necessarily that easily accessible in the UK for that whereas this

[00:47:34] was and I think I was I hesitated about going for this recipe because I did think to myself well how much are we gonna have to say about it really and actually there was more it was more engaging than

[00:47:49] I thought I liked that you you did the academic research as well that was yeah like five minutes ago when you're making the dishes I will keep you updated about this book it's meant to be

[00:47:59] very good it's a really beautiful little copy as well I love books about cooking and culinary history okay confession time what went wrong what did we fuck up I mean there were a few things that we

[00:48:11] fucked up however the I'm not proud to say this we went out and we bought some spaghetti and we came back and we realized that we'd failed to buy spaghetti we had failed do you

[00:48:26] know what Pierre I think you're actually making a sound too good there we didn't realize till we were eating it that we had failed to buy spaghetti we'd actually bought spaghetti bocchettini we had we had

[00:48:35] yeah it was delicious and thoroughly recommend yeah it was great I'm really I'm really pleased with it we and you know in a way I think it proves our point that even with the best

[00:48:46] world in the world we still managed to make the recipe a little bit fussier we did we really slightly fancier pasta we also added I think we've decided that seasoning i.e adding salt and pepper

[00:48:58] is fair game in bare recipes if it's not otherwise stated yeah I I don't know what you think listeners but we we both felt would Mikey bother to write down add salt and pepper I don't I don't think he

[00:49:11] would John Berthold please write in with your thoughts yeah my confession is that I did add quite a lot of parmesan after my first couple of bites oh and so did I and it was totally

[00:49:21] worth it it was totally worth it adds that nice salty tang a little salty tang amazing what do you think about our next adventure into the kitchen what do you think we're going to try next

[00:49:33] I did notice we bought some burr sam today yes a little confession we have made the burr sam omelette before if you haven't then don't wait for us go out and make it because it's great

[00:49:45] it's so good but I think we will we will walk you through the steps purely at later date absolutely and I think I think that is all we have to say about the about Mikey's family spaghetti

[00:49:59] is good whether whether you can resist making it more complicated I'd be fascinated to know we we nearly managed it we same came so close to not making it fancy I know we came so close

[00:50:13] to not gentrifying the spaghetti and then we accidentally bought bocchettini I'd never had bocchettini before it's quite it's good how do you hit it it's like it's like fat cuddly spaghetti fat cuddly spaghetti I was always scared of like the the hollowness in the middle but I think

[00:50:31] what it meant was it became slightly chunkier and cooked slightly quicker which actually really appealed to me um yeah so it was an error but it created something pretty delicious so I'm pleased and by that you mean this recording and yes that's what I mean by this recording

[00:50:47] excellent all right that'll do so we're back with just a few listener responses to our call for feedback for this episode of the pod um I'll pass over to Peter for our first piece of feedback

[00:51:04] number one Steve Brown excited for season three thank you Steve I'm excited to hear what you think Steve was the one who bought you bourbon I remember it well yeah it's good Erica and

[00:51:15] Furture says can't wait to listen Erica I hope we have not disappointed you Karen Morveille not Karen the Karen the Karen yes chef damn I love this show maybe season two even more than

[00:51:28] season one you know I think I agree with you about that Karen so well written and acted and a love letter to Chicago a great city can't wait to hear Lucien Peters podcast oh thanks so glad I gave her $50 for that

[00:51:43] Becky Fennner Anderson says sometimes the tension and certain chaotic scenes triggered my PTSD from being a server slash cook slash manager in a restaurant the story and acting is superb every single person adds something great to the show it has some slow moments but overall fantastic

[00:51:59] show and I'm super excited for season three oh Becky I would love to hear more about your former former life in the restaurant I'd love to know how accurate this is um it sounds like quite

[00:52:12] if we're very lucky listeners Lucy might tell us about some of her time is what she tells me may have been the worst waitress in the world oh it was yeah if they could have found me to give me

[00:52:22] a certificate I'm pretty sure they would have so next up we have Karen she someone else who's taught me a bit about bourbon actually yes Karen got us a delicious Jeffrey Dean Morgan

[00:52:34] written it was a Rai whiskey it was always a Rai whiskey sorry very good we've been making some very good old fashions with it actually beautiful yeah really nice um anyway moving to moving to your comments I started the show well after season two had finished skeptical about

[00:52:50] its success I really only started it when I heard that John Bernthal was a guest star you and me both what began as a lazy sunday viewing turned into a full binge of the first season

[00:53:00] maybe I got sucked in because I was already a glutton for a series about food being loyal watching of being a loyal watching of top chef and chef's table maybe it's because I have been

[00:53:10] lucky enough to eat at some of the finest Michelin starred restaurants in the nation well done Karen I have a real love and respect for the culinary arts and a chef's ability to marry textures and flavours and plate food like paintings or to just enjoy a humble cooked

[00:53:25] home cooked or whole in the wall meal with loved ones food nourishes and warms the stomach and the soul like that of course the bear succeeds because of its writing we love to cheer for the

[00:53:36] little kitchen that could I enjoy the competency porn from that's such a good expression we need to steal that competency porn from these scrappy diner cooks turned fine dining chefs I love Marcus's evolution and his whole episode in Copenhagen to make me hate a character then cry

[00:53:53] happy tears while he rocks out Taylor Swift is no easy feat season two episode sevens forks is one of my favourite most perfectly written episodes of tv ever and Sydney's romp through Chicago's best restaurants not necessarily the most expensive eateries mind you was a feast for the eyes

[00:54:11] it was so well done oh yeah that was a good episode I'm so glad this series introduced me to i o eddie bere Jeremy allen white ebon moss backrack Lionel boys molly gordon and well there are too

[00:54:23] many awesome cast and crew to name am I eagerly anticipating season three yes chef thanks for the coverage lucian beater let's eat through chicago together someday oh doesn't that sound good

[00:54:34] I would love that do you remember we met Karen in person in san francisco when we were over for the walking dead finale and you and I had just had fantastic Mexican food in mission and you had

[00:54:48] that's our cat hi tommy you had tongue beef tongue I did was a beef tongue burrito yeah what uh tackle oh yeah oh those are good days those are good days fair warning to our listeners with the

[00:55:02] with a few notable exceptions I wouldn't say the English tackles are necessarily where you would look no they're not our first I think we mainly ate Mexican in in san francisco just because we're

[00:55:15] kind of starved of good mexican here I for one would love to eat my way through chicago both with you and with Karen one day we should do that we should make it happen all right that

[00:55:26] is our show thanks for listening everyone and for tuning in for this first episode if you want to write in or leave us a message for future episodes you can find all our contact information

[00:55:35] at podcast dot com while you're there be sure to check out our other shows we were listening to one today indeed we were we were listening to our coverage of house of the dragon with reyni veronica

[00:55:46] and one day it was very good aren't they aren't they annoyingly knowledgeable I just I honestly think georgia our martin would lose a trivia quiz with reyni yeah it's you know I I've

[00:55:58] got a decent amount of attention to to to game of thrones related material and there was so much stuff but I didn't know it's incredible absolutely incredible um and I believe there's also a walking dead rewatch going on somewhere oh who's on that I don't know some amazing

[00:56:17] just incredible Scottish wonderful sunday we've just started season three and it's it's dizzying because I think this is the walking dead it's best so do hop over to the rewatch on the off chance

[00:56:30] that you're listening to this having never listened to us on the cast of us and do hope over if you want to talk a little bit more about zombies so in our next episode we'll be covering the bear

[00:56:40] season three episode one tomorrow how you feeling really good really good good I'm glad all right that is our show thanks for listening let it rip Karen she