Elderly bakery owner ‘spilled their heart’ out to The Bear actor in tear-jerking off-camera moment-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Jeremy Allen White and Lionel Boyce are back for another hair-raising season in the kitchen (Picture: AP/ FX/Hulu)

The Bear is the most authentic chef show on television, no doubt about it. It encapsulates the behind the scenes reality of working in a restaurant like no drama has before.

With the help of distressed head chef Carmy (played by Jeremy Allen White), the series is known for creating incredibly intense scenes from the kitchen of a sandwich shop in Chicago, The Beef.

Fans are gobbling up more wry, hair-tearing action in season two, which hit Disney Plus on July 19.

But it’s no happy mistake the show has earned a reputation as an effective mirror of the hospitality industry, as the people behind it aren’t just actors and movie-people.

In fact, The Beef is inspired by real food joint, Mr Beef, ran by director Christopher Storer’s childhood friend Chris Zucchero.

Not only that, but producer Matty Matheson – who also plays Neil Fak – is a real life chef and restaurateur hailing from Canada.

Of course though, not every actor in the series is a trained chef.

Carmy is perhaps more stressed than ever in season two (Picture: Hulu)

Lionel even gets a helping hand from Will Poulter this season as he travels across the globe to create his perfect dessert (Picture: Hulu)

Indeed, Lionel Boyce – the face of gentle, dessert-mad Marcus – admitted to Metro.co.uk that before the show he ‘couldn’t cook to save [his] life.’

He wasn’t burning-beans-on-toast inept, but 32-year-old Lionel wasn’t exactly familiar with many ingredients beyond salmon and shrimp, he admits.

Luckily, culinary producer Courtney Storer – sister to director Chris and real life chef – was on hand to teach him all the skills and tricks to convince viewers at home he was a pudding proficient.

‘It was cool, because I would leave her house once a week with delicious desserts,’ Lionel recalled.

‘And she’s a professional and I’m just like there with my hands pretending like I know what I’m doing.’

So much work was done behind the scenes by Courtney, that Lionel now gets people from the hospitality industry letting him know how much The Bear resonated – and momentarily mistaking him for a real life fellow chef.

‘Yeah I do get that,’ Lionel admitted, when asked about whether people from the industry ever approach him about the show.

‘Lots of times if I got to a restaurant, if they’ve seen the show and they recognise me they’ll say something.

Lionel gets people from the hospitality industry coming up to him and talking about the show (Picture: Hulu)

‘It’s cool to me to make something that means something to people.

‘They get very specific. Sometimes they get excited and they start explaining food and then they realise, “Oh yeah, you’re an actor, you’re not a real chef so you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

‘It just shows that they’re really impassioned. They’re like this is cool because you’re representing us, and things like that.’

One particular instance stuck in Lionel’s mind, as he explained it’s not just young budding chefs and restaurant workers who stop him in the street.

‘It’s not just like one age range,’ he explained.

‘There was a really old women who approached me who opened a bakery, and I thought that was cool. She was like, “I don’t like TV, I don’t watch TV. But I watched this show.”

The star remembered one particularly special moment when an elderly bakery owner – who doesn’t even like TV – confessed her love for the show (Picture: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

‘And she spilled her heart about it. And I was like, that’s awesome.’

But while The Bear depicts the worst sides of an industry, it also perfectly illustrates why people keep coming back to the precarious hot air of a professional kitchen.

The Bear oozes in warmth – and not just from the hob.

Lionel perfectly summed up this feeling while fondly describing his character Marcus, a figure he sees much of himself in.

‘He’s a person who thought their life would go one way, and just accepted their life being in that direction,’ he explained.

‘Then they found their passion at a certain point and it gave them a second wind, and they realise nothing has ever mattered as much to them as this thing.’

The Bear is streaming now on Disney Plus.

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