Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, the leads of the Chicago-set kitchen dramedy “The Bear,” say the show has sharpened both their friendship and their cooking. Off camera, they are enthusiastic home cooks who lean on reliable standbys when work ramps up. As Edebiri put it, when she is working, she avoids trying anything new. Her greatest hits include a creamy corn pasta with basil. Moss-Bachrach said years of recipe-hunting have given way to comfort and repetition, with crepes by Tamar Adler and Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce among his go-tos.
One dish carries special weight for Moss-Bachrach, who often makes his mother-in-law’s vegetarian borscht. The recipe is a family touchstone.
In a recent video, Moss-Bachrach walks Edebiri through that family borscht, noting his mother-in-law is Ukrainian. His daughters joined the shoot for a bit of family history as the pair compared notes on real and fictional kitchen life. Below are edited excerpts from their conversation.
Ebon, can you start off by telling us what borscht is?
EBON MOSS-BACHRACH It is woven into Ukrainian culture. Every family has a version, some with meat, beans, or tomatoes. It is a staple of Eastern Europe, as adaptable as an Italian marinara, reflecting families and regions.
How often did your mother-in-law, Lidia Yemchuk, make this for you?
MOSS-BACHRACH My daughters grew up on it. When we landed in Los Angeles and went to her house, borscht was always the first thing we ate.
Ayo, have you had this borscht before?
AYO EDEBIRI I have not had this borscht before.
MOSS-BACHRACH Have you had borscht at all?
EDEBIRI I have. Beet is not really part of my cultural food pyramid, so I am excited to try this one.
MOSS-BACHRACH It was not part of mine either. In the U.S., borscht can become a sweet beet thing in a jar, which is not for me. This is a savory dish. There is sweetness from the beets, but it reads more like a cabbage soup.
Before today, have you both ever cooked together?
MOSS-BACHRACH We have. We have vacationed together, and Ayo has come over to the house.
EDEBIRI Lazy stuff. I have not really cooked for you properly.
MOSS-BACHRACH That is correct.
EDEBIRI Is that something I should change?
MOSS-BACHRACH Yeah.
Are you often cooking from a recipe or usually freestyling?
MOSS-BACHRACH I cooked from recipes for years, and a recipe app rode shotgun with me. Now I am tired or burned out, so I stick to what I know. I am less adventurous than I used to be.
EDEBIRI When I am working, I cannot do anything new.
Do you remember what is in your recipe box?
MOSS-BACHRACH Tamar Adler’s crepes by proportion. I love that one. Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce too. I do not really need to check it, since it is tomatoes, butter, and onion.
EDEBIRI A summer corn pasta where you cook the corn and blend half of it. That was a big hit. Also the Alison Roman shallot pasta.
Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach on borscht, recipes and ‘The Bear’
What is the best thing you learned on “The Bear” that you brought into your home kitchen?
MOSS-BACHRACH Omelet?
EDEBIRI I cannot eat eggs after that omelet.
MOSS-BACHRACH Oh, really?
EDEBIRI Courtney Storer and I developed that omelet. We tested it, chose salt-and-vinegar chips to go with it, and ate all of it because we did not want to waste food.
MOSS-BACHRACH I stayed to watch that day. I was not shooting, but I wanted to see. I have tried to crack omelets for years, watched Jacques Pépin make them on YouTube so many times, and still could not get it. So I watched Coco and Ayo make it.
What skills did you need the most help with before starting the show?
MOSS-BACHRACH Knife work and mise en place. The drilling of cutting sells the cooking show.
EDEBIRI Also the sequencing. Knowing when to do what for efficiency and cleanliness.
MOSS-BACHRACH I learned to stop stirring constantly. Matty Matheson told me to let ingredients sit, interact with heat, give them time, then move them so their friends can meet the heat. I like that philosophy.
EDEBIRI A tool I took from the show is the scraper. Now I cannot be without one.
Have you ever cut yourselves while cooking?
MOSS-BACHRACH Oh my God.
EDEBIRI Yes. What is your worst?
MOSS-BACHRACH The mandoline.
EDEBIRI Same. I was gossiping with a friend while cooking and, for a while, my fingertip changed. Even TSA PreCheck scanners stalled on me.
Tell us about previous work in food service.
EDEBIRI My first job was dishwashing at a nursing home. In college and after, I worked at ABC Kitchen. I started with reservations, moved to hosting, then serving. When V opened, I worked as a barista there and sometimes covered at Cocina. I served a lot of famous people.
MOSS-BACHRACH Go on.
EDEBIRI Steve Buscemi and Paul McCartney once came in together on a double date. Everyone was kind. They gave me a hundred-dollar tip, and I was the host. I remember thinking, blessings upon them forever.
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Answer for each other.
MOSS-BACHRACH She would be a Shirley Temple.
EDEBIRI Thank you.
MOSS-BACHRACH She is a sweet, fizzy cocktail.
EDEBIRI You could be this borscht, with a little hot sauce.
MOSS-BACHRACH I have range.
The pair’s offscreen friendship mirrors their on-screen dynamic. They swap practical home-cooking strategies, lean on time-tested recipes, and carry lessons from set to stove.
Their conversation returns often to family and process, from a Ukrainian borscht passed down through generations to the value of mise en place and restraint at the stove. For more on how pop culture shapes personal habits and self-image, see Jia Tolentino revisits Instagram face and youth plastic surgery.