Summary

• René Redzepi's culinary philosophy of foraging, fermentation, and experimentation influences chefs like Carmy in The Bear's Season 3.
• Omnivore deep dives into the history and impact of essential ingredients like chili, tuna, salt, banana, and more with stunning cinematography.
• Real-world issues faced by fine dining restaurants like The Bear are explored in Omnivore, shedding light on the challenges of quality ingredients.

René Redzepi has long been known in the fine dining world as one whose obsession with food and ingredients has dominated his successes, and now the chef is sharing that obsession in Omnivore. Much of Redzepi's reputation is built on Danish three Michelin-starred restaurant, Noma, which popularized the New Nordic Cuisine culinary movement. His culinary philosophy primarily focuses on foraging, fermentation, and a lot of experimentation.

Redzepi's approach to cooking is more than just an influence on The Bear season 3 – the chef's restaurant was used as an important part of Carmen Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White) professional history. Noma and Redzepi both feature in Carmy's flashbacks in season 3, with the restaurant's obsessive attention to ingredients becoming something that's ed on to the burgeoning chef. With Redzepi's Omnivore, it's easy to see where this attention comes from, as the documentary series deep dives into the nitty-gritty of some of the most essential foods in the world.

What Is Omnivore? Apple TV+'s Documentary Series Explained

Noma's Redzepi Combines Natural History With Anthony Bourdain

Omnivore is an Apple TV+ documentary series with eight episodes that dive deep into the history of different commonly used ingredients. The Redzepi series, which was co-created with food journalist, Matt Goulding, incorporates the political and environmental impact each food has had on the world and centers on the individuals and communities that produce these items. It then presents this with the stunning cinematography of a nature documentary. Omnivore has been likened to a combination of the David Attenborough nature documentary series, Planet Earth, and Anthony Bourdain's long-running food and travel series, Parts Unknown.

Omnivore provides a fascinating insight into many things we take for granted and contextualizes them from a personal and global perspective.

Each episode focuses on a single ingredient, including chili, tuna, salt, banana, pig, rice, coffee, and corn. The series then travels to the part of the world where the ingredient originated or that became a major producer of that ingredient, exploring the various positive and negative implications of its growth, expansion, and exportation. Omnivore provides a fascinating insight into many things we take for granted and contextualizes them from a personal and global perspective.

Omnivore Shows The Real-World Version Of The Bear’s Restaurant Issues

High-End Ingredients Cost More, Like That Super Expensive Orwellian Butter

In The Bear season 3, Carmy and Sydney's (Ayo Edebiri) fine dining restaurant opens, and despite becoming popular, the restaurant is having financial issues. This is primarily attributed to Carmy and his insistence on making an all-new menu every day. The strain infects everyone, as servers struggle to keep up with daily changes, kitchen staff make unforced errors, and the restaurant can't make larger orders for ingredients that would reduce costs. Among the items discussed as particularly problematic for The Bear restaurant is Orwellian butter, a rare butter that Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) complains is costing them $11,000.

Omnivore shows how this may become an issue for restaurants like The Bear, as the documentary series focuses on some of the producers who dedicate their lives to making a high-quality product. Although Omnivore doesn't have an episode on butter, episodes like "Salt" show the care and attention that can go into the farming and production of the essential item, and how this dedication and shift away from mechanized production lines can alter the price and quality. As Redzepi's narrates:

Once upon a time, a gram of salt cost roughly the same as a gram of gold. Today, a kilo of salt goes for about 20 cents. Not [the high-end finishing salt] fleur de sel. A kilo of salt... sells for more than ten dollars.

As with anything, quality and rarity cost more. So, for fine dining restaurants like The Bear that opt for quality over price, items like luxury butter or hand-farmed salt from French ponds will quickly increase operating costs. For restaurants, where the profit margin is often quite slim, weighing these aspects of running a business is an ongoing challenge, and the fragile nature of the industry makes this balancing act a constant struggle.

Rene Redzepi’s Obsession With Ingredients Is Imprinted On The Bear’s Carmy

Although Carmy's Obsession Becomes Toxic

While all high-end chefs will likely have some obsession with ingredients, Redzepi's Noma took that to whole new levels. His reliance on foraging and experimentation has developed into some of the food world's most innovative and ground-breaking dishes. Unlike Redzepi, however, Carmy's relentless pursuit of perfection pushes him to slowly morph into his worst nightmare, and as The Bear season 3 demonstrated, even with a long line of positive influences, one toxic boss can often turn good intentions sour.

Redzepi is just one of the influences in Carmy's life, along with numerous other real-life chefs that feature in The Bear. Previous seasons showed Carmy at Noma, and season 3 returns to these memories. It's clear that his time at the Danish restaurant has instilled Redzepi's obsession for produce in The Bear's chef, and likely contributes to why he's insistent on maintaining a daily menu, despite its financial burdens. Carmy's care and attention to every detail is what's necessary for a restaurant to be considered for Michelin stars, but for new establishments, this can also lead to ruin.

As Redzepi's Omnivore documentary series shows, there's a good reason why some ingredients cost more. However, the push and pull of creative vision versus the realities of running a business often forces chefs to make difficult choices that balance artistry with sustainability and profitability. As Carmy considers these factors in the The Bear season 4, it's unclear how the restaurant will survive this battle.