Column: Class and social status in the kitchen and ‘The Bear’
CHICAGO — “The Bear” is the story of a workaday Chicago sandwich joint switching gears to become a fine dining establishment. But restaurant kitchens of all types are an ecosystem where class issues play out. It’s a hierarchy that inevitably says something about social status. How well — or not — does “The Bear” tackle these themes?
Tribune TV critic Nina Metz talks with the Tribune’s dining team; the following has been edited for length and clarity.
Food critic Louisa Kung Liu Chu grew up in her family’s restaurant on Chicago’s Northwest Side and is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Paris. While in Paris, she worked at the restaurant Les Ambassadeurs. She has also spent time in the kitchens of Alinea and El Bulli, among others, and was nominated twice for a James Beard Award for her restaurant criticism at the Tribune. (In an earlier life, she was a fixer for Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” TV series.)
Food reporter Ahmed Ali Akbar joined the Tribune this year with a wide range of experience in audio, culture and food writing. He began covering American Muslim food culture at BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed News a decade ago and
