The Bear stars a famous chef who’s never cooked in the show

With The Bear Season 3 streaming now, some fans have just learned that a real-life famous chef plays one of its best characters — and he’s never cooked anything in the series.

Matty Matheson’s Neil Fak has been a force for good in The Bear cast since Season 1, always around to fix a flickering light, rewire a dodgy fuse, or offer a helping hand wherever he’s needed.

At the end of Season 2 and into Season 3, he even pivots to become a server, offering up his nervous charm to the restaurant’s patrons.

Here’s the thing: while he’s been in the kitchen plenty of times, he’s never cooked a dish. Why is that funny? Well, for those who don’t know, Matheson is an acclaimed chef and internet personality who owns several restaurants, and he’s also written two books and appeared in several web series.

He’s also been an executive producer on The Bear since its beginning. The fact that he never cooks anything in the show is part of the joke, but some viewers didn’t realize that until now.

“Wild to me that they put Matty Matheson, a famous chef who has written two cookbooks, in The Bear and didn’t have him make food on screen even once,” one user tweeted, sparking a wave of responses.

“This blows my mind every day and I can’t wait to get his new cookbook in October,” one replied. “Oh this makes SO much sense now lol I was wonder why he was making all those videos but he’s a chef so duh,” another wrote.

“I don’t know what’s funnier: people just now learning Fak is a famous chef irl, people thinking that *EP* Matty Matheson had no say in this, or people not getting that it’s funnier and better this way,” a third added.

You can check out one of his newest cooking videos below:

In a 2023 interview with Variety, Matheson admitted that “acting scares the sh*t out of him” and he still finds it “nerve-wracking.”

In addition to his starring role, he uses his expertise (alongside the show’s culinary producer, Courtney Storer) to bring authenticity to the show’s menus.

“The way that I think about food and the way that Coco thinks about food are very different. But it’s always the same structure,” Matheson explained.

“Thinking of a pasta dish, we’d ask, ‘Where does that pasta dish come from? Where do I come from? What are the flavors that I could take, and put into a pasta?’ So, we’re trying to figure that out for Sydney and Carmy.”

If you’ve already binged it, check out our full recap of The Bear Season 3. We’ve also broken down The Bear’s new guest stars, how Mikey died, and there’s a Bradley Cooper cameo you might have missed.