HAIL TO THE CHEFS (THE BEAR, SEASON TWO)

© FX, Hulu & Disney+

After the storm comes the calm and then the next storm.

That's how it feels watching Season Two of FX, Hulu and Disney+'s excellent culinary comedy drama 'The Bear' in which Jeremy Allen White's Carmy Berzatto goes back to the drawing board with his family's restaurant.

(SPOILER ALERT!!)

Having discovered at the end of Season One wads of money concealed by his late brother, Jon Bernthal's Michael in tomato cans, Carmy decides to open a fine dining restaurant to replace their fast food sandwich shop.

However that means refitting the premises to ensure it is up to scratch.

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It also means hiring more employees and retraining existing staff.

As Carmy and Ayo Edebiri's talented chef Sydney Adamu plan the new restaurant's menu, his pregnant sister Abby Elliott's Natalie 'Sugar' Rose Berzatto is taken on as their project manager.

Ebon-Moss Bacharach's argumentative family friend Richie and Matty Matheson's handyman Neal Fak are tasked with executing a plan to revamp the kitchen and ensure the building is in a fit state to pass all environmental health inspections.

Even Oliver Platt's family friend Jimmy 'Cicero' Kalinowski is involved, using his contacts to get the necessary restaurant permits.

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However as an investor, Cicero stands to also gain the site should the restaurant  The Bear restaurant fail which he will flog off for development.

Nevertheless he insists he wants it to succeed, telling Carmy in the penultimate episode he must give his all to making it work. 

While Carmy juggles the demands of launching a new restaurant with a tentative relationship with his childhood crush, Molly Gordon's doctor Claire, he also opens his contacts book to help his staff understand what will be required of them.

Liza-Colon Zayas' Tina Marrero is thrilled when Sydney asks her to be the sous chef to her chef de cuisine.

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However she is also sent to culinary school with Edwin Lee Gibson's line cook Ebra and while she flourishes, he struggles.

Lionel Boyce's talented pastry chef Marcus Brooks is flown to Copenhagen for a week to learn from Will Poulter's accomplished dessert chef Luca.

Richie, who is struggling to find a sense of purpose and is sceptical about the new venture, is dispatched to the high end restaurant Ever. 

He learns the art of customer service under Andrew Lopez's waiter Garrett and Sarah Ramos' maitre d Jessica.

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As The Bear's crew hurtle towards an inevitably chaotic opening night, will Carmy, Sydney and the others have the right focus to turn the restaurant into a success?

After its barrage of frenzied Season One's episodes, writer directors Christopher Storer and Joana Calo take a different tack in the follow up season, droppunh gears.

There is a much calmer approach for the bulk of Season Two, with most of the episodes unfolding at a languid pace.

This is a brave but sensible move but it also feels like the calm before other storms.

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The first storm comes halfway through Season Two in a pivotal, star studded flashback episode that revolves around the Berzatto siblings' highly strung, heavy drinking mum Jamie Lee Curtis' Donna preparing a disastrous Christmas dinner for friends and family.

In a brilliantly executed episode written by Calo and Storer - directed by the latter - all the family's tensions are laid bare, shedding loads of light on events in previous episodes and subsequent ones as well.

Jon Bernthal's Michael has the mother of all dinner table rows with Donna's shyster on-off boyfriend Bob Odenkirk's Uncle Lee Lane.

Sarah Paulson's cousin Michelle Berzatto offers Carmy a chance to live with her in New York while he tests his skills as a chef, while her boyfriend, John Mulaney's Stevie delivers a hilarious grace before a farcical dinner.

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Gillian Jacobs is wonderful as Richie's then wife Tiffany Jerimovich who is struggling with feeling sick during her pregnancy.

Calo, Storer and the rest of the writing team reduce the heat after this episode, only to crank it up at full blast in a chaotic finale.

For those casting around for a great US TV series in the wake of 'Better Call Saul' and 'Succession,' 'The Bear' appears to be the show that could plug that gap.

There isn't a weak performance in the whole damn show as Calo, Storer and Ramy Yousef, who directs the Danish episode, deliver exquisitely crafted instalments.

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White anchors the show with a vulnerable central performance that reveals a character riven with self-doubt and haunted by family dysfunction.

Edebiri is equally compelling as Sydney invests everything in a risky venture that could make or break her career.

Bacharach more than holds his own against these two, as Richie desperately tries to turn his life around in a restaurant he struggles to believe in and in the wake of a failed marriage.

Series regulars, Elliott, Colon Zayas, Boyce, Gibson and Matheson all get their moments to shine, while Oliver Platt sparkles as the one character that you feel could really turn on a sixpence with devastating consequences.

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Gordon is a decent addition to the cast but it is also a testament to the writing, direction and acting in the show that the guests fit so comfortably into proceedings.

Bernthal, Paulson, Mulaney and Odenkirk fizz whenever they are onscreen.

By way of contrast, Will Poulter is delightfully understated in a beautifully packaged Danish episode.

Olivia Colman turns up briefly as Chef Terry in the restaurant Richie is sent to and, like Poulter, delivers a guest performance of great heft and subtlety.

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Robert Townsend is a joy to watch as Sydney's dad, Emmanuel.

None of these performances feel like the shoehorning in of a famous face.

Each feels like an essential ingredient in a show whose writers and directors constantly get the blend just right.

Calo, Stoner and their fellow writers, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina, Stacey Osei-Kuffour, Sofia Levitsky-Weitz, Alex Russell, Rene Gube and Kelly Galuska are in total control, knowing when and how to switch between sweet and sour.

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Cinematographers Andrew Wehde, Adam Newport-Berra and Chloe Weaver never put a foot wrong, bringing the audience up close and personal to the action even when there is an air of calm.

Joanna Naugle, Adam Epstein, Nia Imani and Megan Mancini also deliver some of the best editing ever seen in a small screen show.

While Storer and Cali's respect and love for well crafted food shines strongly throughout both seasons, their eclectic music tastes are also a huge part of the show's success.

This time there are brilliantly deployed needle drops like Steve Earle's 'Transcendental Blues,' Bruce Hornsby and The Range's 'The Show Goes On,' Mavis Staples' 'You Are Not Alone' and REM's 'Half A World Away', along with smartly chosen tracks by Wilco, Fine Young Cannibals, Edwin Starr, Lindsey Buckingham, The Replacements, Neil Finn, Van Morrison, Andy Williams, David Byrne, Taylor Swift, Nine Inch Nails, The Pretenders and ACDC.

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With Season One already bagging six Primetime Emmy nominations and a Best Actor for White at the Golden Globe, expect 'The Bear' to dominate every awards season if it can maintain these high standards.

And don't be surprised if next year Jamie Lee Curtis is adding an Emmy to her Best Supporting Actor for high octane guest appearances that amount to the best acting she has ever delivered in her big and small screen career.

Christmas dinner will never be the same again.

(All episodes of Season Two of 'The Bear' was made available for streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland on July 19, 2023)