Cookery hasn’t been this sexy since since Nigella wore silk robes to lick chocolate from a spoon
He leans over a sizzling saucepan, wearing a well-fitting T-shirt that shows off his tattooed arms. To protect his T-shirt (ones that make your arms look that good don’t come cheap), he is wearing an apron – dark denim, or maybe even leather, but definitely some kind of masculine fabric, a bit blacksmith-adjacent. He rakes back his hair from an aesthetically sweat-beaded brow and frowns in concentration as he adjusts the seasoning. Mmmm, delicious. Is this making you hungry? Or is it making you … “thirsty”, as the kids say?
The hot chef, lust-object de nos jours, is about to get even hotter. The second series of The Bear, already streaming in the US and available in the UK from 19 July, brings grouchy-yet-inexplicably-adorable chef “Carmy” Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White, back to our screens just as summer hits its peak. Oh, and if you have a sweet tooth, you may be interested to hear about the new guest star – pastry chef Luca, played by 30-year-old British actor Will Poulter, who told Variety magazine he “literally begged to be in the show” to realise “a dream of playing a chef on TV” and that he has an “immense amount of respect” for people in the food and service industry. To prepare for the role, Poulter spent time in the kitchen at the London restaurants St John, Black Axe Mangal (now F.K.A.B.A.M.), and Trullo. He described one particular shift in the Black Axe Mangal kitchen as “maybe the most satisfying day of work I’ve ever had in my life”.
