Season 2 picks up as Carmy and his sous chef Sydney develop the menu, while Carmy's sister Natalie manages the renovation. Meanwhile, the rest of the staff take individual journeys to expand their culinary and hospitality skills with the goal of transforming a modest sandwich shop into a fine-dining restaurant with Michelin-star aspirations. We also get another look back into the Berzatto family's often volatile history around family meals.
In the first season, we were given a flashback of the Berzattos gathering together as they tell stories and make braciole, which inspired our own Hank Vaughn to make a braciole of his own. In Season 2's penultimate episode, "Omelette," the staff are scrambling as opening night approaches. Natalie is busy following up with everyone's pending tasks while in the last trimester of her pregnancy. In one scene, she admits to Sydney that she hasn't found the time to eat. Sydney offers to make her something, and Natalie asks for an omelet.
Much of The Bear's appeal has been its realistic portrayal of restaurant kitchens, and the scene of Sydney preparing an omelet is no different. Over a two-minute montage, we watch Sydney as she sets to work whisking eggs, filing the omelet with cheese and plating the dish with a casual flair that showcases her skill in the kitchen. Natalie is blown away at the omelet and the gesture behind it, declaring after her first bite, "I could cry."
Watching some of Sydney's techniques in making a simple omelet inspired me to head to the kitchen to try to duplicate her efforts. With no formal training of my own, it was off to the internet to learn the ins and outs of Sydney's dish.
Pro tip #1: whisk your eggs through a fine mesh strainer for a creamier, more consistent omelet.
Evelyn Goldstein
Sydney pours her whisked eggs into a skillet coated in plenty of melted butter, then shakes the pan vigorously as the eggs cook. Using a spatula in her opposite hand, she loosens the edges of the omelet as it starts to set, then pipes in a spine of creamy cheese for the omelet's filling.
It's not mentioned at the time, but Sydney describes the omelet to Carmy later in the episode and tells us the cheese is Boursin. You can buy Boursin off the shelf, but it's easy enough to make on your own, and the results are spectacular. In my mixer, I blended two parts cream cheese and one part softened unsalted butter, along with freshly grated Parmesan, fresh parsley and dill, plus some dried Italian seasoning and black pepper. Again, the internet is your friend here, chock full of similar recipes for you to try. I stuffed a zipper storage bag into a glass, then scooped the cheese into the bag. After sealing the bag and cutting off one corner with a pair of scissors, I had my own amateur piping bag to add cheese to the omelet.
Naturally, Sydney makes folding an omelet look like second nature, but this is where rank amateurs like me will struggle. With a line of cheese extruded into the upper third of the omelet, I used a spatula to fold over the short side onto the cheese, worked the lower third over the top and inverted the omelet onto a plate. The timing here is key: too early, and the unset eggs will run, and too late, or with too much heat, and the underside of the omelet will brown and break apart when folded. Thankfully, eggs are getting cheaper, so trying again isn't a dealbreaker.
Sydney's omelet finishing technique is easier to nail. I rubbed the plated omelet with a little more butter, then sprinkled diced chives and crumbled ridged potato chips on top. In recalling the omelet to Carmy later, Sydney tips off that she used sour cream and onion chips, so that's what we did, too; the opportunity to experiment with other flavors of chips could be fun.
While perhaps not as picture-perfect as Sydney's, I think my omelet deserves an Emmy for flavor. I stumbled into near perfectly cooked eggs on my second attempt, and the Boursin cheese is creamy, herby and tangy in a way that makes a perfect omelet filling. The crunchiness of the potato chips on top is a unique and playful touch.
Later in the episode, Sydney admits to Carmy that the best part of her day was making the omelet for his sister. "You love taking care of people," Carmy says. As our man Vaughn noted when he made braciole, the food itself is a conduit for connecting with people. As delicious as our omelet turned out, I felt better about serving it to my girlfriend who had been under the weather for a few days. As she ate, I could tell the eggs and the effort lifted her spirits, just as Sydney was able to make Natalie feel better on screen. And that kind of connection is the real kitchen magic.
