"Ceres" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American comedy-drama television series The Bear. It is the sixth overall episode of the series and was written by Catherine Schetina & Rene Gube and directed by Joanna Calo. It was released on Hulu on June 23, 2022, along with the rest of the season.
In the present timeline, Sydney develops a cola-braised short ribs and risotto meal for an upcoming dinner menu. Carmy says it is tremendous but not ready yet, and that she's talented but impatient. Sydney serves it to a customer anyway. Natalie comes to the restaurant to figure out the restaurant's unpaid taxes and she and Carmy search for the missing documents. Marcus continues to work hard on developing donuts, but finds himself behind on restaurant work. Carmy and Natalie fight about how they're dealing with their grief and agree they want consistency from the restaurant. The restaurant has its windows shot out by stray gunfire, and Richie asks the local gangsters to find out who did it. Later, the gangsters get into a scuffle, which Sydney breaks up by offering them leftovers. All the Beef staff are feeling motivated and organized but Richie is still being chaotic and distracting. Tina tells him he needs to get with it and he considers quitting. Richie feels left out and unneeded because of Sydney's success and it's implied that he calls the police on the gangsters.
When talking about the statue, both Mikey and Richie refer to "architect John Storrs" although Ceres was the work of sculptor John Storrs.[3] The Chicago Board of Trade building was designed in the Art Deco style by architects Holabird & Root; the statue "sits atop the building's pyramidal roof. The straight lines on her garment and her machine-made appearance make her the quintessential...ornament for this completely stylized structure."[4]
Mikey tells Richie, Natalie, and Carm that the statue has her back to the east; Ceres faces north, up LaSalle Street, her back is to the south.
While Mikey is talking, he prepares the braciole that Carmy mentions in the season-one finale, assigning Carm to finish the work ("Carmy, do some parm") and rejecting Sugar's proposal that they include raisins, which is how their mom would have done the dish.[11][3]
The gentrification of Chicago is the thematic foundation of the episode. "Logan...Wicker...Pilsen" likely refers to the neighborhoods of Pilsen, Wicker Park, and Logan Square.[12] The "bar next door" is the real Green Door Tavern, but it has not actually closed.[13] It persists, as it has done since 1921.[13] A Sweetgreen gourmet-salad restaurant, marketed to working professionals, is opening soon in The Bear's fictionalized version of the River North neighborhood.[14]
Crooked John asks for drinks to go with the beef sandwiches that Syd hands out: "RC, Green River, whatever we're dealing with." Green River is a soft drink first bottled locally in 1919; by the 1960s it was "a nationally known Chicago icon."[15]
Carmy uses the "cake-tester method" to check "by touch" if the chicken is cooked.[16][17]
A VIP guest at the Beef in this episode is local weatherman Tom Skilling.[17]
Production
Development
"Ceres" was written by Catherine Schetina & Rene Gube.[18]
Costuming
For the flashback, designer Courtney Wheeler put Carmy in a "gray long-sleeved henley to signal relaxed, happier times for the family [because] 'Michael is cooking this meal every Sunday, and maybe the Bears game is on.'"[19] Richie wears a gray-and-maroon "Chicago tracksuit."[19]
Casting
Ebon Moss-Bachrach was largely responsible for Jon Bernthal agreeing to play the role of Mikey, who makes his first onscreen appearance in "Ceres". Moss-Bachrach asked nicely, and since the two actors are old friends, having met during the production of an off-Broadway play, Bernthal said yes.[20]
Filming
The flashback with Mikey was filmed in California, in the kitchen of one of the producers of the show.[20] According to Moss-Bachrach, "Jon's scene was the last thing we shot, so we were able to change our appearance a little bit...Jon was in the middle of doing American Gigolo and we could only really get him for a day. A few of us went out to L.A., and we shot it there, so the whole temperature was quite different, the light was different. It felt not so dark, in a way."[21]
Sydney presents the cola-braised short ribs and risotto dish she conceptualized at the end of "Sheridan." Carmy rejects Sydney's proposed addition to the dinner menu as "not ready."[3] Short ribs are a cut of beef, usually derived the chuck and short plate cuts, which consists "of layers of fat and meat and contain pieces of the rib bone. They're very tough and require long, slow, moist-heat cooking."[23] According to Food & Wine, "On television and in real life, nothing is cozier than a Dutch oven filled with braised, fall-off-the-bone tender short ribs served over risotto. Here, per Sydney's creativity, classic wine and stock braising liquid get a surprising addition from cola, which balances the savory with a touch of complex sweetness to create a smooth, rich sauce."[24] Braising is a cooking technique in which meat is "first browned in fat, then cooked, tightly covered, in a small amount of liquid at low heat for a lengthy period of time" which develops flavor and makes the protein tender.[25] According to The New Food Lover's Companion, risotto is a labor-intensive, delectable, creamy "Italian rice specialty made by stirring hot stock into a mixture of rice (and often chopped onions) that has been sautéed in butter. The stock is added 1⁄2 cup at a time and the mixture is stirred continually while it cooks until all the liquid is absorbed before more stock is added."[26] Sydney's risotto recipe uses an étouffée stock as a flavor base; this is what she was working on in "Sheridan" when she asked Carmy to help her strain her stock.[27]
Den of Geek hailed Bernthal's debut appearance a crucial to the long-term overall emotional impact of The Bear: "The Bear has been great from its first episode on. But it didn't fully become the best version of itself until season 1 episode 6 'Ceres,' in which Mikey is first introduced via flashback. As Mikey attends to the Berzatto family dinner and enthralls his siblings with a story that they've all heard a thousand times, the melancholy at the center of the story firmly locks into place and is never dislodged. Every character on The Bear makes more sense when you remember what they've lost. Even Syd, who never knew Mikey, has to confront his shade within Carmy's baby blue eyes every day."[28]
In 2024, the Hollywood Reporter ranked "Ceres" 16th-best out of 28 episodes produced to that point, commenting "Bernthal instantly infuses Mikey with so much life, making the audience feel the character's absence almost as much as the loved ones he left behind."[30] ScreenRant ranked "Ceres" 15th out of the 28 episodes produced through the end of season three, calling it one of the "more interesting" episodes of season one and saluting the introduction of the "brilliant" Jon Bernthal as Mikey.[31]
In 2024, Variety listed "Ceres" at number 10 on a list of top 10 episodes of The Bear.[32]
In 2025, Vulture ranked "Ceres" as 20th-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear, describing it as "quite a good episode" that is especially "lovely if you've spent any time in Chicago."[33]Esquire magazine listed "Ceres" at number 8 on its 2025 list of top 10 best episodes from the first three seasons of The Bear, with the goddess of the harvest serving as "a marker of change for The Bear as its characters transition from their old world of meat slop into whatever Carmy has cooking in his head. Of greatest concern is Richie, whose pathetic boorishness is reinforced before his great metamorphosis in season 2."[14]
A BuzzFeed writer who watched season one for the first time in 2025 commented, "Richie is not enjoying the breakaway from the system. Everyone in this show is so good with the subtle expressions. So much character crammed into little 30-minute episodes."[34]
See also
Bad News Bears – film franchise mentioned by Carmy and "Richie Bad News"
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