10 Shows Like ‘The Bear’ You Should Watch Next[html]
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Kitchens are a pressure cooker (pun more or less intended), whether you're trying to get your high-end restaurant off the ground in order to sustain some kind of family legacy or just trying to keep the pasta from boiling over in your own home. Cooking is challenging, even when the only person to say "yes, chef" to is you.
The Bear's 2022 debut kicked off a new interest in a specific sub-genre of shows dealing with the stresses and joys of food and the restaurant business. These shows approach those topics from different angles and different tones—some of them will keep your stressed-out Bear-buzz going, while others will serve to bring the heat down.
Julia (2022 – 2023, two seasons)
It’s a good moment to revisit Julia Child. At a critical period in American culture, she reinvented herself multiple times, first by learning to cook when she was already nearly 40, parlaying her talent into a bestselling cookbook; and then when she moved into television, becoming an unexpected celebrity in the process. Though they’re not related, strictly speaking, the 2009 movie Julie & Julia focused on the lead-up to Child’s fame, while this series spotlights the chef (Sarah Lancashire, serving up an absolutely impeccable performance) during her early days in the spotlight as she experienced upheavals to her own life and the broader cultural shifts ongoing at the time. The show makes clear just how transformative Child was for our television and cultural landscape, even if her kitchen wasn't quite the pressure-cooker we see in something like The Bear. You can stream Julia on HBO Max.
Midnight Diner (2009 – 2019, five seasons)
“The Master” prepares relatively simple, appealing comfort dishes at his atmospheric after-hours Tokyo diner, joined by regulars and newcomers with distinctive quirks and personal dramas. Think High Maintenance, but in a fixed location, with a lot more food. It’s definitely a lower-stress alternative to Carmy's kitchen nightmares. You'll find the show's first three seasons streaming as just Midnight Diner, and the final two as Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories. You can stream Midnight Diner on Netflix.
Sweetbitter (2018 – 2019, two seasons)
Taking on restaurant culture from another side (and another city), Sweetbitter is based on the novel of the same name from Stephanie Danler, who based it on her experiences as an NYC waitress (she also created the series and wrote the pilot). Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell plays Tess, 21 at the series' opening, as she arrives in the city and gets a job at a prestigious restaurant. As we (and she) quickly learn, there's at least as much drama (including drugs, booze, and sex) on the service side of the industry as there is in the kitchen. You can stream Sweetbitter on Starz or rent it from Prime Video.
Itaewon Class (2022, one season)
This wildly popular K-drama feels, in many ways, like an exemplar of the form, at least to American audiences who might have limited exposure to Korean TV beyond Squid Game. It's got action and family drama, as well as a compelling love triangle, but also deals with themes of class and injustice. Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) has just been released from prison after a wrongful three-year sentence, with only one goal in mind: to turn a pub into the biggest and best restaurant chain in South Korea (which will also serve as his own brand of revenge on those who saw him imprisoned). Itaewon is one of Seoul's most diverse neighborhoods, and Sae-ro-yi's ambitious plan draws a found family of misfits who want to help to turn the bar into something truly impressive. You can stream Itaewon Class on Netflix.
Chef! (1993 – 1996, three seasons)
Though a bit lesser known stateside, the British sitcom Chef! remains a fan favorite for its smart scripts, impressive production values, and (frequently) vicious sense of humor. Lenny Henry plays the perfectionist, imperious Gareth Blackstock, one of English comedy’s top-tier arseholes, the type of all-but-irredeemable character who could never be a lead in an American sitcom. There are family elements here, but the series also deals with the nitty gritty of preparing fine meals—not just the cooking (though there’s plenty of that) but the logistics and economics of food obsession. You can stream Chef! on Tubi and Britbox.
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013 – 2018, 12 seasons)
Anthony Bourdain's photo hangs on the wall in Carmy's kitchen, and it's not hard to see the link: Bourdain's career blended a passion for food with a reluctance to suffer fools. For Bourdain, food wasn't a means to an end; it was a means to explore culture and community—and Parts Unknown fulfills that brief. While the series finds the chef traveling all over the world, season seven brings him to Chicago and sees him sit down for a fried steak sandwich at local landmark Ricobene's. You can stream Parts Unknown on HBO Max, Discovery+, and the Roku Channel or buy episodes from Prime Video.
From Scratch (2022, miniseries)
A big step away from the high-intensity drama of Carmy's kitchen, From Scratch takes us to Florence, Italy following art student Amy (Zoe Saldaña). There, she meets and falls in love with Sicilian chef Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea). It's sweet and sentimental, unashamedly so, but the performances rescue it from ever feeling cloying. It's based, roughly, on the memoir from Tembi Locke (who co-created the show), and draws us into the world of high-end Italian cuisine just as Amy is being drawn into Chef Lino's world. You can stream From Scratch on Netflix.
Shameless (2011 - 2021, 11 seasons)
I'm mostly bringing up Shameless for the Jeremy Allen White of it all—he plays Lip, the second child of Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) and someone forced into a caregiver role in his family (alongside older sister Fiona) despite his fiery temper and struggles with substance abuse. Both comedy/dramas involve complicated, largely dysfunctional Chicago-area families that, nevertheless, find ways to stick together (for better and worse). In both shows, White's characters become the tempestuous, reluctant glue that holds everything together. You can stream Shameless on Netflix.
Gentefied (2020 – 2021, two seasons)
A half-hour comedy-drama, but with an emphasis on the comedy, Gentefied follows three Mexican-American cousins who have built lives in Los Angeles, only to be faced with a new challenge: the looming gentrification of the neighborhood they helped to build with their family's taco shop. Much as The Bear captures a sense of Chicago's specific food culture, Gentefied has a baked-in sense of place and culture. This bilingual series has a lot of heart, and,
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August 07, 2025, 05:01:45 PM