Australian cookbooks featured on The Bear - Food Files

Jul 04, 2024

Talk about upping your cred.

We know that the last three seasons of The Bear have captured the essence of life in a restaurant (the whole series should come with a trigger warning for current and former hospitality workers).

The cast has undergone intensive training by some of the world’s top chefs so they talk the talk and walk the walk. The walk-in is the physical and emotional heart of the restaurant. And the constant checking of the clock before service is giving us flashbacks. But what some viewers may have missed is the subtle but important detail on set, and every chef’s obsession: the cookbooks.

Pages and pages of recipes from around the globe are dotted throughout Carmy’s office, apartment, and kitchen, and more than one Australian chef has made the cut. ‘The Complete Asian Cookbook: China’ by Charmaine Solomon, the 93-year-old living Australian legend, sits pride of place on Carmy’s bookshelf, for good reason – Solomon’s guide was the first foray for many Western home cooks to Chinese cooking and has sold well over a million copies since its first print in 1976.

The Bear bookshelves

Malaysian-born, Melbourne-raised pastry chef Helen Goh became a major influence on the show’s quiet achiever, Marcus, who studied her cookbook ‘Sweet’ which she co-authored with Yottam Ottolenghi. Africola’s Duncan Welgemoed also got the tick of approval on season two, as did delicious contributor, Tom Walton, with his book ‘More Fish, More Veg’.

Another Aussie chef is featured not once, but twice in the collection. Peter Gilmore (of course) is a clear favourite of the show’s set designer, with his books ‘Organum: Nature Texture Intensity Purity’ and ‘Quay: Food Inspired by Nature’ popping up in seasons one and three.

Evidently, our little island at the bottom of the globe has created very big waves around the culinary world, something that’s easy to take for granted when we’re so spoiled for choice. We can’t wait to see who’ll be featured next.