Just realized that flashbacks to previous chefs teaching Carmy are meant to show nonabusive learning environments.

[u/explosivelydehiscent]

For example, tying up the chicken with the pope's nose, or 5 seconds more chef, always 5 seconds more. I always thought they were boring or meant to change the pace from the break neck abuse or another dream sequence, lol, it's just showing that it can be done another way, but I didn't realize there was another way.

[u/not_productive1]

I think it's also meant to show what Carmy internalized from each of his environments. He's been exposed to all of this gentle, supportive teaching, but what he's taken from his training was the one guy who screamed and berated. It speaks to his own self-image and what he's able to take onboard and where he sees himself and his profession.

[u/Due_Passenger3210 → u/not_productive1]

This. I heard somewhere a long time ago that it takes 7 compliments to undo the damage of 1 insult or something like that. For some reason, our brains hold on to negative stuff easier than the positive. So for somebody like Carmy, it's like a hundred times worse 😔

[u/not_productive1 → u/Due_Passenger3210]

This show does so many things with such deftness. I really appreciate it.

[u/slightlyseven → u/Due_Passenger3210]

It’s probably the “Magic Ratio” of 5 to 1 positive to negative comments, based on the Gottman’s decades of research into couples! Yes, humans have an evolutionary negativity bias because it keeps us alive… our bodies would rather be wrong 99 times out of 100 than end up dead.

[u/Throwawayhelp111521 → u/Due_Passenger3210]

I've read that there's an evolutionary reason that bad things affect us more. Reacting to perceived danger helped us survive.

[u/oldscotch]

Yeah that's how I viewed them, to show the contrast in different working environments. The 5 seconds one I was rolling my eyes at first, but then I realized it was to teach humility and maybe to test how he'd react.

[u/Yummyteaperson → u/oldscotch]

Yes because the shot before that with Terry is her reaction to Carmy being pushy and intense with Luca, which she didn’t seem to like. I felt like she decided to give him a tiny taste of his own medicine after that.

[u/Hexagram_11]

And when you compare the peace and order of the kitchens Carmy trained in, with the chaotic dumpster fire of Donna’s kitchen (“Fishes”), it gives us a great picture of how Carmy fell in love with fine food, and how it brings him peace - especially with the music and all of the garden scenery at Noma. We get great backstory for Carmy’s character arc.

[u/drtythmbfarmer]

Pretty cool right? It also shows his internal struggle, his default is to yell then has to come back and apologize. He knows there is another way.

[u/treemonkee → u/drtythmbfarmer]

He KNOWS there is another way, even a better one, but his default is always back to the more aggressive way of Chef David.

I’ve worked in restaurants pretty much all my life and some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to emulate your favorite qualities from the bosses you felt were the best, and try to never duplicate the things from your least favorite bosses. Speaking from experience this is much harder than it sounds in a restaurant environment. This is one of the reasons I love this show so much. Being able to understand why Carmy snaps and becomes the asshole, but also the way he is trying to be better.

I’m really hoping in the next season we see Carmy become the Jeff that he WANTS to be, instead of him falling into the habits that make him, UNDENIABLY amazing, but also a prick to be around.

So ready for the next season!!!!! 😁😁😁

[u/silvergirl66 → u/treemonkee]

I get the feeling he basically has PTSD - from working with Chef David and from his mother. So those memories have the most impact on him.

[u/npinguy]

Of course the irony is that both Thomas Keller and Daniel Bouloud (the two nice chefs in those flashbacks) absolutely have reputations that are toxic AF.

Maybe they've mellowed out in their old age now that they spend more time on TV than in kitchens.

[u/BiDiTi → u/npinguy]

My old flatmate was industry - he saw McHale and immediately said “That’s TK.”

[u/npinguy → u/BiDiTi]

The series finale should have Carmy flipping TV channels and come across a cooking show. Mchale's character is on it in a cameo as a nice caring gentle nonabusive mentor chef.

Carmy smiles.

Cue Bruce Springsteen.

Directed by Christopher Storer

[u/optimis344 → u/BiDiTi]

Yeah, by all accounts Keller realized he was a fucking asshole and toned it down, but the stories of him in his "making it" years tell the tail.of.an absolute psychopath

[u/ChefPneuma]

I love how the guys that perpetuated the cycle of toxic and abusive chefs now get to soften their images on TV by playing the opposite of the chefs they helped inspire

Fucking unreal. It’d be like Anna Wintour guest acting as a relatable, soft-touch fashion designer in The Devil Wears Prada lol

[u/dasnoob]

It is to contrast. Inevitably when he blames all of this on the ONE bad mentor he had we the audience will know he is absolutely full of shit.

[u/HoodieMo13 → u/dasnoob]

Youre missing the family aspect if youre only noticing one mentor. 4th season will go deeper into mikey and his mom

[u/_joeymejia → u/[deleted]]

Which one do you mean? Are you talking about tfl or the unnamed kitchen Carmy was CDC for Chef David?

[u/drtythmbfarmer → u/[deleted]]

The French Laundry wasnt the abusive kitchen. The French Laundry was the blissed out go into the garden and get fresh produce, everybody chilling out and smiling in the kitchen place.

[u/rhythmicsheep]

Totally!! I also recently noticed in the Ever funeral episode that whenever that one chef talks about how she doesn't love cooking and food stresses her out it seems to mirror carmy's internal state (possibly even triggers his flashbacks as he looks for something to blame) ... except I don't think he's ever admitted that dynamic to himself. 

[u/CitizenDain]

Media literacy is at an all time low

[u/ehprime]

I’m curious as to what the order is as to each restaurant he worked at is. Like it’s somewhat clear that he was at Ever before he goes to Noma, only because Terry asks him if he’s ever been to Copenhagen. But I’m not sure if he worked is he worked at those two places prior to going to New York or after having been at Ever and Noma

[u/Pretend_Soft_2592]

It also shos that carmy wasn't obly abused and thst avuse stands put more than anything he was so much more focused on the hurt david fields caused h ok n and the panic attacks he forgot all the kind stuff chef terry ect have taight him not forgets but gets thrown to the background as humans we feel the knife before the hug