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Carmy attempts to retrain the employees of The Original Beef of Chicagoland, but is faced with resistance. In need of back-up, he brings on a talented young chef to help.

Carmen Berzatto, also known as Carmy or Bear, is a highly talented chef who was awarded the James Beard Foundation of Rising Star Chef of the Year. He comes home to his family's restaurant in Chicago, called The Original Beef or The Beef, which is willed to him after his brother's abrupt death - Michael, who is commonly referred to as Mikey. The restaurant is struggling heavily on finances, is lacking infrastructure, and has a team of uninspired cooks. Carmy must reorganize every system to avoid its imminent closure. An alarm wakes him up from a nightmare involving him releasing a caged bear that ends up attacking him. He is greeted by a delivery driver who delivers a small portion of his meat order due to lack of payment.

While speaking to an older Hispanic Chef named Tina, Carmy has an idea to host an arcade tournament to boost sales in the restaurant, but is required to find alternative ways to source his ingredients. He calls in favors from his friends in the restaurant industry but finds himself trading most of his vintage denim jacket collection in exchange for meat. He promises to trade a jacket that was gifted to him by Mikey, which pains him as it is one of the last reminders of his brother.

As Carmy is given different cuts of meat than usual, he changes the cooking method which takes longer. Tina ridicules Carmy for his fine-dining workflow and is confused when he refers to her as "Chef". Carmy is so overwhelmed with work that he forgets that he organized an interview with a highly skilled, young chef named Sydney, who applied for the Sous Chef position. Sydney has a culinary school education and has worked at many renowned restaurants in Chicago which baffles Carmy that she would want to work in his run-down sandwich restaurant. Sydney refers to Carmy as the most excellent Chef de Cuisine in the most excellent restaurant in the entire United States and wants to learn from him. In the meantime, she is a stagiaire who is an unpaid intern so they can learn how the restaurant operates and to be evaluated. Her first duty is to cook the pre-service family meal for the staff.

Ebraheim is an older chef from Africa who is a part of the team. He becomes frustrated with Carmy's new systems and is reluctant to embrace change. It is clear that Carmy is unfamiliar in this environment and lacks the respect of his colleagues. Even Sydney has a hard time establishing herself as the other chefs bully her.

Carmy checks on Marcus, who is in charge of making the bread but is struggling to meet quotas due to equipment being broken.

Gary Woods is a front of house staff member who also handles miscellaneous tasks throughout the kitchen. He is also known as Sweeps, as he swept the St Louis baseball team three times and had a no hitter.

Richard Jeremovich, also known as Richie, colloquially refers to himself as Carmy's cousin. He also pretends to have an Italian heritage, much to Carmy's chagrin. He was also Mikey's best friend and worked alongside him as an unofficial assistant manager at The Beef.

Richie arrives to work late due to having shared custody of his child and berates Carmy for changing the systems. Things become personal when Richie blames his own divorce on supporting Carmy's family before and after Mikey's death, as Carmy was absent. Carmy responds by asking Richie why Mikey didn't leave him the restaurant instead.

As Carmy has been frustrating his staff, they retaliate by sabotaging his equipment which forces him to use the dull house knives. Carmy continually educates his chefs on new restaurant lingo, techniques and efficient workflow. He is also chastised for removing spaghetti from the menu, which was very popular among guests. After a heated argument, Richie takes control and orders the kitchen to ignore Carmy's instructions.

Neil Fak, commonly referred to as Fak, is one of Carmy's closest friends and does freelance maintenance work at the restaurant. He points out that Carmy has been bleeding from accidentally cutting himself during preparation. As Carmy rushes back to the kitchen for first aid, he bumps into Ebraheim carrying a tray and is unable to control his temper.

As he calms down, he stares at a framed picture that he drew which is a concept for a fine-dining restaurant. When attempting to commence a pre-service team meeting, he is unable to get their attention and is overshadowed by Richie telling a story.

Carmy takes a break to collect Mikey's jacket from his sister, Natalie, also known as Sugar. She is uncomfortable being around the restaurant due to bad memories and is hurt that Carmy has abandoned their family in recent years. She urges Carmy to sell the restaurant, but Carmy is adamant in fixing it. When going through Carmy's books, Marcus stumbles across his awards. When he also receives feedback from Carmy that improves his own workflow, he gains a newfound respect.

Carmy gathers the team to try his new method of braising beef where everybody loves the flavors, but Richie refuses to acknowledge him.

Sydney is also eager to impress with her beef stew served with rice, plantains and fennel salad as the family meal. The team has a nice bonding moment where they show gratitude and have banter. Meanwhile, Carmy attempts to calm down the crowd queuing up for the arcade tournament, but is assaulted in a brawl. Richie breaks up the scuffle by firing a gun into the air and takes control of the situation with his authoritative demeanor. As Carmy realizes that he is unprepared to run this restaurant by himself, Richie orders him to stick to the status quo and cook the spaghetti. When Richie is alone, he finally tries Carmy's beef sandwich and quietly remarks on its brilliance.

As Carmy begins to open a can of tomatoes to prepare the spaghetti, he changes his mind and throws it in the trash.