The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop.
As Carmy and the staff start considering new employees and methods, Sydney approaches Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), asking her to become her sous-chef.
In May 2023, Hulu confirmed that the first episode of the season would be titled "Beef", and was to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer.
[2] The episode included songs, such as "The Show Goes On" by Bruce Hornsby, "Handshake Drugs" by Wilco, "Transcendental Blues" by Steve Earle, and "New Noise" by Refused.
It's that kind of manic confidence and blind ambition that made us all fall for The Bear in the first place, so, to quote Mikey Berzatto, let’s let it rip.
Daulerio of Decider wrote, "High-minded literary types will find metaphors everywhere in the crew's rebirth/rebuild/renovation, but despite the optimism and commitment to change, the walls are closing in.
"[7] Karl R De Mesa from Show Snob wrote, "A great, very kinetic episode to catch us up from the events of the previous season, while getting us pumped for the ones to come.