If you haven’t watched The Bear yet, I don’t know what you are watching. If you have, you’re familiar with Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, our emo protagonist who inherits the family sandwich joint, The Beef, after his brother’s death and turns it into a fine dining establishment. As with all great stories it’s the journey that matters, and therein lies the beauty of the series.
Carmy is a Michelin-level chef who comes back to what can only be described as a frat house of food; a ragtag team of friends – that grow into a family of sorts – holding down the shop with some Italian brisket and a prayer. It’s dysfunction in a deli but makes for fantastic viewing watching Carmy attempt to handle it all. Jeremy Allen White leads, together with Ayo Edibiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. They’ve cleaned out awards shows – deservedly so – taking us into the tales of a working kitchen.
Disney+ decided to take us on another immersive journey when they hosted The Bear Joburg Experience this past week. The Bear doesn’t exist as a restaurant IRL but what if it did? The experience was designed to imitate Carmy and Sydney’s offering by way of a pop-up at Acid Food & Wine Bar in Parktown North. The invitation came as a delivery of a handful of water-stained forks and a embroidered cotton napkin with the instruction to polish them to perfection and present them at the door of the experience to be allowed entry. As a fan of the show, I was instantly taken back to episode 7 of the second season, titled “Forks”. It’s the little details such as these that heightened my anticipation for the night.
The evening itself was hosted by Chef Greg Czarnecki, who regaled us with tales of his experiences in the kitchen. Born and trained in France, he’s worked at several Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, including Restaurant Senderens, Lucas Carton, and Pergolèse. He also launched renowned restaurants in Brussels, including Genève and Lyon. From 2009 to 2020, Greg served as Head Chef at The Restaurant at Waterkloof in Somerset West before taking to our TV screens as a judge on the fourth season of MasterChef. We were in for a treat.
The different courses were a culinary masterpiece. Hake Quenelle with champagne sauce and caviar started us off before we dug into the sous vide chicken with a port jus, topped off with a crispy skin piece. The night ended with a dessert of rum baba, vanille bleu de la Reunion and passion fruit. The wine pairing was immaculate. Only South African varieties were presented with the different courses; Cederberg’s Chenin Blanc, Antonij Rupert’s 2018 Merlot, and Thelema Vin de Hel Muscat Late Harvest were paired with the three courses and we were welcomed with Charles Fox’s Méthode Cap Classique.
As a localised experiential marketing exercise for an international show, I couldn’t fault it. Acid Food & Wine Bar was transformed for the night. The yellow cab and steam grate outside the venue heralded the the show’s Chicago setting, Chef Greg’s insights on the restaurant industry and his personal observations of Carmy’s experiences on the show, and the overall attention to detail lent themselves to a night of culinary excellence.
We were gifted a few recipes of the night’s creations on the way out, together with a month’s subscription to Disney+, but the true takeaway with any dining experience is the way it leaves you feeling at the end of it. In my case, the most apt description would be ‘inspired’.
