I know this is TV sacrilege but ‘Emily in Paris’ and ‘The Bear’ actually have more in common than you’d think
We finally have... a star!
Emily In Paris and The Bear don’t have much to do with each other. In fact, the TV snobs would have you believe it’s sacrilege to even utter their names in the same breath because one is a candy-colored escapist fantasy that’s not taken seriously and the other an Emmy-winning dramedy.
And to those who can’t bear this comparison, let me bring to your attention the one thread that links these two series together—their gorgeous blue-eyed chefs have both been gunning for a Michelin star for their respective restaurants. It was neck and neck for a while there but as of September 2024, one of them has managed to cross that finish line. Of our two favorite kitchen hotties, Chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) from Emily in Paris and Chef Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) from The Bear, the former has achieved their life’s dream first!
In June this year, The Bear dropped its season 3, and we saw Chef Carmy, Chef Syd (Ayo Edebiri), and their team at The Bear put everything they had into getting a Michelin star. But as of the season 3 finale, we find out that the restaurant has gotten mixed reviews from critics, and that can’t possibly be a good thing when you’re aiming for a star. However, because Emily In Paris is the la la land where nothing bad really happens, despite all the lies that Luc’s (Bruno Gouery) girlfriend Marianne (Laurence Gormezano) told about her being a Michelin inspector, and Gabriel giving up on his dream to get the star, season 4 part 2 finale saw him get the news that he had received the coveted Michelin star for his restaurant!
Okay sure, it’s not a legitimate award race, but for those keeping track, we have a clear winner. And since Emily (Lily Collins) is a Chicago native, let’s assume for the sake of fangirl joy that these two universes collide in some bizarro TV land!
It’s funny that when you actually sit down to compare these two chefs, you can find the most eclectic (even if a stretch) overlaps in their lives. Both Chef Carmy and Chef Gabriel have mesmerizing blue eyes that hypnotize you into saying “Yes, chef!” to anything they might ask of you. Carmy worked at a restaurant called The French Laundry, and both he and his girlfriend (now ex) are from Chicago. Who else do we know is from Chicago but our very own Emily Cooper, also a girlfriend (now ex) to Chef Gabriel, a French chef?
Jokes aside, it can’t be denied that both these chefs have worked really hard to build restaurants of their own, named in honor of their loved ones who made them fall in love with cooking. Carmy names his restaurant The Bear, which is what his deceased brother Michael (Jon Bernthal) would lovingly call him, and is an homage to his family and Chicago roots. Chef Gabriel names his restaurant L’Esprit de Gigi after his grandmother, Gigi (Christine Pignet), who taught him how to cook, and his menu features many dishes that are an homage to his Normandy roots.
Both Carmy and Gabriel are backed by investors in their ventures and share a complicated relationship with them. In Carmy’s case, it is his father’s best friend, Cicero (Oliver Platt), who finances the restaurant out of love for the Berzatto family despite it being a treacherous investment that barely gives him any returns.
For Gabriel, Antoine Lambert (William Abadie) arrives as a savior when he agrees to finance Gabriel’s buying of the restaurant in season 1. It’s not just that Antoine loves the food; he also senses the love between Gabriel and Emily, and sees his own situation reflected in Gabriel’s refusal to take money from his girlfriend Camille’s (Camille Razat) family in season 1 to put up his own restaurant—Antoine’s money came from his wife’s family, and that has bound him to her for life. We find out in Emily In Paris season 4 part 2 that even though the accounts are running in the red, Antoine thinks L’Esprit de Gigi is the most fun investment he made, and he and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) are talking to Gabriel about expanding to other cities when Mindy (Ashley Park) informs them about Emily moving to Rome.
And that there is yet another similarity between Chef Carmy and Chef Gabriel! Their love lives… hooo boy, so complicated! Had they been more focused on work, they both would’ve probably gotten their Michelin star earlier! Both Chef Carmy and Chef Gabriel have perfectly amazing girlfriends in Claire (Molly Gordon) and Camille, respectively, and manage to spectacularly mess up those relationships.
For Gabriel, Camille may always be family but Emily feels like that epic love that fate brings your way. When he gets the news that he finally received the Michelin star, his celebrations feel incomplete because Emily is no longer with him, because she was so instrumental in his success with her unwavering belief in his talent and all the promotion she did for the restaurant and the chef.
For Carmen, that person is Chef Sydney. Now you can come at me with the whole platonic relationship angle between the two, but there’s no denying that Syd and Carmy have this cosmic connection since before she walked into his family’s restaurant looking for a job. The best dish that Syd ever tasted, as we find out in The Bear season 3, was a dish that Carmy went against his chef’s instructions to prepare as per his instinct. Not to mention all the motifs and parallels that spell out Syd is Carmy’s peace, his partner, not Claire, even though she was amazing and will always be like a friend to him and his family.
Whether Chef Gabriel finds his happy ending now that he has his Michelin star and whether Chef Carmy finds his happy ending which might come when he’s able to do right by Chef Syd (and then get the Michelin star together!) remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, someone needs to put Emily Cooper on that flight to Chicago so she can stumble into The Bear, rave about it on her social media account, and help our favorite Chicago restaurant get some of that Emily Cooper luck!
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