Meet Chris Storer and Courtney Storer, the Siblings Behind ‘The Bear’

Not since Anthony Bourdain published the exposé-memoir Kitchen Confidential has a storyteller done more to deepen our understanding of restaurant culture than Christopher Storer, creator of the FX on Hulu original series The Bear, and his sister, chef and culinary producer Courtney Storer.

Two years ago, The Bear showed up on our screens, alternately growling in anger and rolling over to reveal its fuzzy underbelly. Like Kitchen Confidential and Bourdain’s subsequent television shows, The Bear uses food to tell human stories. It was a winning formula for Bourdain, one that spawned many imitators in print and on-screen, but to be clear: The Bear is no imitator. It’s a post-COVID workplace comedy, a single-shot 20-minute anxiety attack, a snappy David Mamet play, and a meditation on creative artistry and purpose. In other words, it’s the first of its kind — like nothing else on TV today. 

The Storers, in the midst of production for The Bear’s third season, weren’t free to comment for this story. But TV critic Andy Greenwald, who has covered The Bear extensively on his podcast, The Watch, weighs in: “Chris and Courtney have redefined food on [scripted] television. It’s long been a white whale, deemed almost impossible, partly because of the perpetual problem that we can’t taste what’s on screen, and it can be hard for the layperson to understand the stakes. But [the Storers] are able to communicate the spirit of what moves food people to do this work in a way that is relatable to millions.”  

It starts with the writing, which presents complex characters who defy stereotypes, have real-world worries, and are capable of change. Chef Carmy, played by Jeremy Allen White, may be a chain-smoking baddie, but he’s also a grieving brother, a prodigal son, a self-lacerating overachiever, and a bewildered product of chaos and dysfunction. 

The Bear’s cast of cooks is a rangy ensemble, led by White and Ayo Edebiri, and by requiring real cooking skills from them, the Storers set them up for success. White shadowed chefs for a year and attended culinary school, and Lionel Boyce, who plays pastry chef Marcus, learned how to handle dough at the right hand of bread baker Richard Hart at Denmark’s Hart Bageri. 

“It was Christmastime, which was not ideal, because the bakery was so busy,” says Hart. “But that was actually great because it added to the pressure of getting him to look and act like a baker.”

Professional cooking is all about time pressure, and the Storers use it to their benefit, shooting, editing, and airing each season of The Bear on an extremely compressed four-month timeline. 

“The schedule really informs the fast pace of the show,” Chris Storer said to Greenwald on an episode of The Watch. “It just removes second-guessing, and it feels like you’re running a restaurant.” 

Equally credible is the actual food on The Bear — the fictional restaurant’s chocolate cake, sandwiches, and cannolis are an essential part of the show’s storytelling.

Television food stylist Tamara Reynolds, whose work appears on Billions, Succession, and Feud: Capote vs the Swans, says, “Whether you’re in the industry or have never cooked anything, you can understand the characters’ actions and concerns and understand what’s happening with the food, because it’s a piece of the story, moving it forward.”

Because of Courtney Storer’s commitment to creating a realistic kitchen for the actors, the set is outfitted with working gas stovetops and professional ovens so the cast can react to real heat and all its effects: They feel hot and sweaty and can smell onions caramelizing (or burning) or a sauce boiling over. 

Thanks to her extensive experience in the restaurant industry (she previously worked with 2007 F&W Best New Chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook as the culinary director of Jon & Vinny’s), Courtney Storer is an extremely hands-on culinary producer, turning the actors into credible professional cooks and cooking all the food that appears on screen herself. “I’m elbow-to-elbow with these actors, cooking with them, stepping out of the scenes that you’re seeing, and then I come back in when they say ‘Cut,’” she told Variety in 2023. Her tireless attention pays off, with food that looks hot and delicious and real on screen. 

Of course, The Bear is not a documentary. “In terms of the actual chef stuff, we always wanted to shoot for 50% accuracy,” Chris said on The Watch, noting, for instance, that the kitchen set is much larger than the average space to accommodate both camera and kitchen equipment, plus the actors and crew. And while Cousin Richie’s evolution from dirtbag to maitre’d might seem unrealistically rapid, what does it matter when the overall show is so bighearted and true? 

“If you’re too worried about getting things wrong, you can forget how to do your piece that makes the art feel right,” says Greenwald. “The Storers fundamentally understand what makes television great, and it’s not too dissimilar from what makes restaurants great.