Sydney X Carmy - Tumblr Posts
Another ship you say? You're doing too much you say? It's just platonic you say? Cue Dido "White Flag."
r u mine?
I will not abandon ship.
Sydcarmy nation growing by the hour oh i prayed for times like this, but never forget the pioneers and way makers who stayed true through the storm of hate and invective for over a year
I still believe
Chefs Kiss (Sydcarmy) fans stay with me, Chefs!
I’m not taking anything Ayo, Jeremy and Christopher say against sydcarmy, aka Chefs Kiss, seriously.
They purposefully kept Carmen and Sydney as separate as possible this season, which is a big mistake in my opinion.
The show is about the characters and their relationships with each other. Food is a part of it, but it’s mostly the relationship each character has with one another that makes the show.
The writers trying to dispel the rumours by keeping what I would call our male and female leads apart is nuts because Jeremy and Ayo play so well off of each other but by separating them Jeremy gave his weakest acting (which is still very good) during Carmy/Claire scenes?
They keep saying The Bear doesn’t need romance then give Carmen a whole relationship that was so boring to watch for like 7 episodes and felt like watching paint dry because Claire isn’t engaging.
I’m expected to care about her, what she supposedly means to Carmen and hear about how great she is but don’t get to see it? She’s an ER resident for gods sake and she’s running around town giggling every 5 minutes without a semblance of the hard work and exhaustion that comes with being a doctor.
And for the reason stated above, I believe she’s a manic pixie dream girl. She’s there to change Carmen’s view on life, be different and quirky and the one who got away when in reality Carmy forgot who she was and had to be reminded which took him a whole 5 seconds to remember the supposed love of his life, purposefully gives her the wrong number and she says “You’re the Bear, of course I remember.”
No one was gonna take her seriously as the person to keep up with Carmy and help keep him sane.
Meanwhile Sydney does. She anchors him, she keeps up with him and she calls him out on his shit. Sydney isn’t perfect. She’s terrible at stating what she needs at that moment, she slightly short tempered and she is passive aggressive.
She also is working on her impatience and passive aggression. She eventually tells Carmy she needs his attention as her partner. She speaks up for herself to her dad and she’s not letting her ambition be treated like a bad thing anymore.
Carmen and Sydney would make sense because they are flawed. Carmy stops going to group therapy as soon as he starts dating Claire because she’s ‘fixed’ him and they don’t work because of that.
Sydney has ‘levelled up’ in her professional life, she’s more assertive and willing to listen and has just grown as a person and that type of continuous strive for self growth is what Carmen needs to see in order to do the same HIMSELF.
Sydney isn’t there to fix Carmy, she’s someone who he can grow alongside.
Claire was used as a kids bandaid to a gaping wound; the wound being Michael. Claire represents a life where Mikey was alive and Carm’s fucked up family was as whole and happy as it’s gonna be. She represents the past and everyone PUSHED him to want to date her in the past.
There is too much between our two chefs for simply business partners:
S1 shows Carmen scrubbing the floor of the restaurant when in turmoil while Sydney does the same in S2;
She’s spliced into the montage of Carmy and Claire as though she’s a silent part of their relationship;
She has the three dagger heart tattoo which typically represents romantic heartbreak and turbulence;
Carmen remembers her interest in his whites from three months prior even though she didn’t say anything and gets her her own custom whites;
The imagery from their conversation under the table? Him asking her to screw the other side and “say more, please” as he holds up the table (and Sydney) while she finally shares her fears;
“You’re not alone.” “Neither are you.”;
The memories of Sydney being what calms him from his panic attack;
During said panic attack, the song that was Claire and Carmen’s plays in reverse and any flashes of her are accompanied by memories of his dysfunctional family while the moment he thinks of Sydney? The song starts playing correctly. He calms and flashes of his family (and Claire) disappear;
Them constantly cooling an argument with the ‘I’m sorry’ gesture;
Him constantly being in tune with her emotions and body language.
Sydney represents a new beginning. The chance to build a healthy family with the staff of The Bear, Sydney, Natalie and Richie. She represents a future. She represents good change.
I’m fully convinced Ayo and Jeremy are just doing what all actors do with a ship that’s not yet canon: downplaying or dismissing it.
C’mon if you’ve been in The High School Musical The Musical The Series fandom and shipped Rina from the beginning, you know how it feels to be persecuted and gaslit by other fans and the actors for seasons.
TL:DR, Chefs Kiss is literally a super slow burn and no one of the team will confirm it until it actually happens.
I am seeing a lot of different things. Many things can be true all at once. Some are anti-shipping in general. Some are put off by romantic sub plots. Some cannot see Sydney as a love interest because of their own perceptions of her character. Some of this is based in race, colorism, or any other variety of things. It is hard to know. I don’t presume to. But it has been interesting just how adamant people are against shipping on this particular piece of media in the public (news articles, critics etc.) and that is worth examining.
The Topic of Chef's Kiss
Part 1: Context
I very rarely interact with fandom at all. I was a shy kid and still nervous, though I've found ways around it. I write, read, and comment on fanfiction works, and that's about the extent of it. Then The Bear came along. It's a small fandom, but it's very active considering season 2 is about to come out. I hyperfixated intensely on season 1, though I had to take a break for school. As a result, I scrolled through the tag with a thoroughness that I had never employed before. I was a bit disappointed to see so much shipping discourse.
Before anyone tries to say otherwise, I'm not against shipping. I promise this post will not stop anyone from having fun.
Anyway, I'm not big on shipping. That's not to say I avoid it entirely. It's just not a priority. I primarily engage with media by trying to understand my favorite characters and playing with found family dynamics. So, it's frustrating seeing so many posts focusing intently on Carmy and Sydney's potential relationship instead of their current dynamic. Many people take all of their interactions and put them through the lens of romance and only romance. This is exhausting to me.
And again, before anyone tries to assume anything—just because I find something frustrating does not mean I think it's objectively bad or morally wrong or what the fuck ever. It's an opinion, not a condemnation.
Another bit of context for this post: I'm a queer trans man. I don't mean to use that as leverage, by the way. Disagreeing with me is just a difference of opinions. I'd never claim it's on the grounds of trans/queerphobia. I'm including it as a piece of context for the following point.
Mainstream media romance has always been bland to me. Much of it is saturated with pairings that feel empty and soulless—straight couples getting together for no reason other than being a man and a woman, and that's apparently enough. Many pairings are virtually meaningless because the relationship doesn't change anything. Their arcs are unaffected. They aren't intertwined in any compelling way, they have no chemistry. The carelessness and heteronormativity are exhausting. That is where I am coming from and why I don't ship them all that much.
Part 2: Chef's Kiss
None of what I said in the previous paragraph applies to Chef's Kiss, though. Sydney and Carmy have great chemistry as the two leads. I, personally, don't see it as romantic. That's subjective, though, and I can see why someone would ship them! They're a cute pairing—in theory.
But considering canon, I don't want to see them together. At least, not where their respective characters are at the end of season one. In my opinion, it would be disrespectful to their characters to throw them together just for the sake of it being canon. There are a lot of reasons why they shouldn't have dated in the first season, beginning with the power imbalance, since Carmy is technically Sydney's boss. of course, by the end of the season (really, by the 3rd or 4th episode), Sydney has cemented her role as one of the very reasons that The Beef survived at all, so that's not really an issue (I think) going forward into the next season!
Another reason is that Sydney and Carmy both have these personal issues at their core that dictates their every move, respectively. Carmy, obviously, has his grief to deal with and his fear that Mikey never truly loved him the way he loved Mikey. Sydney feels so much pressure to prove herself, despite the fact that she already has and is an amazing chef and business partner. She has to process the failure of Sheridan Road...and I'm not entirely sure she's done that by the end of season 1? That's not exactly the point in all of this, though.
My point is that I don't think it works for them to be together currently (subject to change with season 2, of course) and that is why I don't really ship them, especially because I'm honestly more concerned with their current state in canon. That doesn't mean I don't find them cute and enjoy some SPECULATION on their relationship's potential, whether platonic or romantic. They might be great for each other in the future.
I'd also like to point out that shipping is traditionally centered around pairings that aren't canon. There aren't any requirements for a ship, so it's totally valid to ship two characters that aren't currently compatible in canon. Again, I'm just explaining why I personally don't ship it. I'm not at all saying that people shouldn't ship them.
Part 3: Shipping Discourse
Firstly, I want to acknowledge that fan spaces have been notoriously racist and specifically anti-black and continue to be, as well as misogynistic, and that the intersectionality of black women is relevant in all parts of life, including the consumption of media. Discussions of misogynoir are incredibly important. I'll always support fans who call out hateful shit in fandom, particularly because it can be a scary thing, considering the attitude many fans have and the tendency to dogpile an individual. It is not my intention to claim that fan spaces are untouched by real-life issues or that there can't be discussions of real-life issues within fan spaces. With that established, I'll continue.
It seems to me that the two primary reasons why some fans don't ship Chef's Kiss are 1) they would prefer The Bear to not focus on romance, and/or 2) they don't feel that Sydney and Carmy's chemistry is romantic/they value the platonic relationship between the two. My issue with the shipping discourse in this fandom is how much of it stems from people pushing the idea that the show itself has to be setting up their romance, or else. Not only do many posts that condemn Chef's Kiss nonshippers completely ignore the aforementioned arguments, but they also leave absolutely no room for nuance. You either ship it or you're a racist.
I've seen many posts in which a question is posed: "What are your thoughts on Sydney/Carmy?" with the response being "Fans that don't like it are racist lol". I don't believe that is a proportional response. There are also posts in which people in this fandom argue that anyone who is against Chef's Kiss is motivated by misogynoir and that, at the heart of it, fans who don't like the ship or support the lack of romance in The Bear believe that Sydney is not worthy of being with Carmy because she is a black woman. I am by no means saying that this is not possible. That is not the argument I am making.
It is my opinion that shipping discourse is not a platform meant to handle topics such as misogynoir—though that's not to say there are no meaningful arguments to be made there. In fact, there's at least one post in the tag that speaks about Chef's Kiss, and that I think did a good job of articulating the undercurrents of misogynoir found in fan spaces. There are also plenty of essays out there on fan culture and social/political issues within it. The thing is, those essays have the purpose of articulating the grievances of a marginalized community through the lens of their experience with fan culture. Whereas the situation that I'm describing is, instead, minimizing very complex ideas to argue in favor of the validity (and even canonical presence) of a fucking ship.
I guess what I want to say is this: fans with marginalized identities should always be supported in calling out shitty, hateful, and discriminatory behavior in fan spaces. Those discussions should be given the time and attention they need. Though the characters are not real, the people within the fandom are. With all of that said, I think that it is, at the very least, distasteful to use the discussion of racism in order to defend a ship. The way that discourse concerning Chef's Kiss employs, quite rampantly, the issue of misogynoir in order to argue that Chef's Kiss is, should be, or will be canon is inconsiderate and tactless. Furthermore, equivocating a person's stance on a ship to their moral standing is bizarre and scummy.
Now to end this post, which is even longer than I thought it would be, I implore anyone who may or may not feel obliged to respond to do so with civility. also, remember that this is a tumblr post in which I did my best to cover everything necessary and articulate my thoughts, not an academic essay. I am just a guy who hyperfixated on The Bear.
This is my favorite fan edit. Chef's kiss indeed. They are such great characters.
Why are anti-shippers so pressed over this? Damn.
strange currencies ep.3 | sydney adamu and carmy berzatto x fem!reader
|| summary ; you're still a little unsure how to feel about that whole meet n greet with sydney and the staff of the soon-to-be bear. but thats okay because you're seeing her later for dinner and you plan on weaseling all the details out of her before the night's over. || warnings ; swearing, casual drinking, casual social media stalking, talk about hooking up/sex (gossipy), reader pov, some carmy pov, some syd pov. still not proof read cause im me || word count ; 2,860 || in case you missed it ; premise , episode 1 , episode 2 , AO3 version if youre into that
You're camped out in a corner seat on the L train, one foot propped up, the other touching the floor, as you casually watch the passengers exit and then enter at the current stop. You're replaying the scene from The Beef - The Bear ? - still thinking you should have let Sydney know you were going to show up before you did. Mostly because she seemed so thrown off due to the fact you'd forgotten to even mention to her before that you were coming back to Chicago for a time. You were never good at that.
The L rattles to life, launching off from the station and back on it's way North in the direction of where your family lives, having taken one of your parent's guest rooms hostage during your stay since it was free compared to paying for a hotel or airbnb. Of course, they didn't mind. They were actually over the moon for you to be home, despite the somewhat dire circumstances of your reason for coming. You blinked, shaking the negativity from your mind for the time being as you lift your phone up to check for any other texts from Syd, or anyone else for that matter.
John Mayer's voice serenades you through your airpods, 'I'm not a fallen angel, I just fell behind. I'm out of luck and I'm out of time'. Your head bobs a little in time with the song, having forgotten how much you liked it when it came out, you let yourself hum along. Still, it doesn't get your mind off Syd, or her partner and was she really so oblivious to how he was staring through the damn girl's soul from across the room? You snort a soft laugh under your breath just before an idea strikes you, why not do a little recon on your friend, The Bear, her partner. You've got time, a good thirty minutes before your stop.
Instagram is loading on your phone a beat later, you type in Sydney's account and this is where your search begins. Fortunately, your friend does like to post the occasional updates to her life. Usually it's food, sometimes places, and it's like the first clue is gift wrapped right there for you in the second row of pictures. You tap the image and the post pops up.
Well, this should help. You first skim the comments which are full of praise and support, so you take a mental note of the names and profile pics in hopes one might stick out. You do notice a recurring theme from a few comments, 'let it rip'. Jeff? Who's Jeff? You chuckle to yourself, figuring whoever made these comments must be staff members which is relevant to your search. Though, none of them are the guy you're looking for so you switch to scrolling through the likes.
Right there near the bottom nestled between a fakattack and sugarbearzatto you see c.berzatto. Then it starts coming back to you, Syd had told you his name before, "Carmy, that was it," you muse aloud as you tap the username and are presented with a very anticlimactic private profile with a picture of a beautifully plated dish for the users icon. Guess this was a dead end. You furrow your brow, rolling your lips together in annoyance. You backtrack to Sydney's profile and resign yourself to scrolling through her posts and your timeline for the remainder of the train ride. Maybe something else would come to you, otherwise you'll have plenty of questions for Syd.
----------
Carmy smooths his clammy palms down the tops of his thighs before crossing his ankle over his knee and lifting his gaze to look out at the others sitting in the circle. It wasn't that he didn't want to be here, or didn't like it. There was just something always a little unnerving about opening up these littles doors to himself, his mind and his past, at these meetings. It had been hard at first, was still tricky sometimes to find the words he wanted to say, but once he got going he would find a flow and follow it until he poured enough out onto the proverbial floor of his life to feel some sort of release. At least this was a floor he didn't have to clean so meticulously. However, he needed to do better about not sweeping so much of his shit under the rug. One problem at a time.
"I have to - I have to remind myself to be present, sometimes. Y'know, remind myself that the sky is not falling," Blue eyes lift to the ceiling for a beat before drifting back down, he seems to look somewhere but never directly making eye contact with anyone. "That there is no other shoe... which is extremely difficult because there is always another shoe." There's a few scattered chuckles, murmurs of agreement and understanding, Carmy grazes his fingers along his brow, down his temple and gives the barest of nods, thumb grazing his bottom lip before he continues.
He ends by thanking them for letting him share, as they all do for each other. And he is thankful to be there, to have given this outlet a chance thanks to Sugar's insistence that it would help all those months ago. And it has. It's not a cure-all, but it's better than a band-aid, better than ignoring his problems, better than sweeping them under the rug. One step at a time.
----------
Night has taken over the city, the moon is bright but the stars are a little absent due to Chicago lights and the gauzy clouds lingering in the sky. It still feels busy despite nearing nine because it's Thursday, almost the weekend, and you're walking up to Pequod's Pizza and it's always busy around here. You see Sydney before she sees you, she's staring down at her phone and something tells you she's probably been there for a bit waiting on you, even though you both agreed on nine.
She was always early, which made you being on-time feel like you were actually late. For a second you're transported back to New York, back to C.I.A., back to the mornings you were hustling into class after downing the last of your espresso while Syd was already at her station, changed into her uniform, reviewing notes or sharpening her knives, and overall being far more ready for the day than you could ever imagine being. Some things never change.
"Syd!" You call out once you're across the street, a skip in your step when you're within range and there's no hesitation as you pull her into your embrace. "Hey Birdie," She coos, then she holds you out at arm's length, hugging you briefly again and then letting you go. "I'm glad you could make it," Her smile brightens and so does yours. "Me too, not that I had anything else to do, y'know, but yeah. This is gonna be great." You're already moving to the door, holding it open for her and following her in.
Of course, she'd set up a reservation for you both, which you were silently thankful for because it looked pretty packed in here and because of Syd you got to sit down almost right away. You didn't even need to look at the menu, "The way I'm about to demolish some deep dish, so sick of paper-thin city pizza. It's cheap but that's about its only real redeeming quality." Your friend couldn't help but shake her head, laughing a little at your enthusiasm.
A server comes around to take your orders, Sydney gets a coke, neither she nor her dad drinks, and you choose a beer because pizza and beer are classic, so why not? You both pick a pizza to split between you. She rests her chin into her hand a moment as she seems to look you over, tilting her head just so like she's thinking, "Soo, you gonna tell me why you're back in Chicago yet or you just wanna keep me in suspense?"
Right to the chase. She was always good at that, never the type to beat around the bush about things. You sigh, smiling slightly, "Can't it just be to see one of my closest friends from culinary school?" She shook her head, seeing right through you, "C'mon B, what's actually going on?" She knew you'd never talked about coming back home to Chicago, it just wasn't on your radar. You liked New York, even though you didn't care much for the pizza, you loved the city, the energy and atmosphere, and so much more about it.
Sydney eyed you, leaning in just a little in hopes of imploring you to give something. You meet her gaze and sigh, what were you supposed to say? In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that you and her had ever been the best of friends, but you'd connected during school and while you were vastly different in terms of behaviors or manners, you both shared a take-no-shit attitude. Though, the basis of your friendship had really veen centered around food, you knew a little about each others families but it had been simple things that had been shared in passing moments. Never any sort of deep dive into each others' lives, even less since you'd both parted ways for your individual journeys some time ago.
"Just some family stuff," You eventually concede, the thought of sharing about your grandmother actually made your throat wanna close up. Talking about it made it very real, and you hadn't decided you were ready for that yet. Fortunately, the server had come back around with your drinks, asking if you needed anything else, updating you on the time for your pizza. It was enough to distract and give you an opportunity to deflect once you and Sydney were alone again.
"I wanna hear about The Beef - The Bear? It looked pretty wrecked in there today," You bite back a soft laugh when Sydney shakes her head, holding your glass up in cheers before taking a swig. "The Bear, yeah, yeah, it is wrecked right now. But its a process. We have a vision. And even though Carm's budget is ass, and most the guys on the project are not professionals.. I- I think we can pull it off," Syd gave an affirming nod that wasn't all that convincing. "As long as we're not lookin' at another Sheridan Road, right?" You tease, or try to, hopeful that the heartache of that implosion for your friend had mostly passed by now. "Oh, fuck off, B," Syd snorted, "Hey! I'm just sayin," You retort back, both of you devolving into laughter.
You settle, helping yourself to another sip of beer, running your fingertip around the rim of the glass when you set it down, "What about your partner, then, Carmy? You really wanna get tangled up in somethin' this big with him when according to you he's kind of a piece of shit?" Sydney's eyes widened for half a beat, clearly having forgotten she'd vented to you about that nightmare of a day, she waved her hands dismissively, "No, no, I mean - yes, okay he is an ass sometimes. He just - he's, um, particular about shit. Which is good, because you don't get where you are by not giving a shit. Which he does. He's an excellent chef, like incredible, Birdie. Just wait til you get to try literally anything he's made. It's kind of mind-blowing, I'd probably hate him if he was my competition."
Sydney goes on and on about him and it becomes glaringly obvious she must be just as obsessed with him as he is with her. Because thinking back to her even choosing to work at The Beef, it didn't make sense. The place was run down, on it's last legs, but she'd been all about it. Or maybe just all about him. You smile at her across the table, she smiles back and no wonder he couldn't stop staring at her earlier. She's gorgeous and clever, equally a genius in the kitchen. He'd be stupid to not be obsessed with her.
The pizza arrives at the table and you both devour it, taking moments between bites and drinks to reminisce on C.I.A. and New York, how you've probably hopped around at least five other jobs since you graduated because you haven't quite found anything that really calls to you. She tells you more about The Bear, how bad she wants at least one star, their plans for sending some of their staff to culinary school, she pauses looking like she'd just had some wild revelation. "Birdie - do you - would you wanna, look, we need to hire more chefs. You've got the training, you're great in the kitchen even though you say you're not-"
You cut her off before she can even ask, you hold up one finger while you finish a bite of caramelized crust, "Syd, girl, I love ya, but hell no." You shake your head with some finality and she deflates for just a second then recovers, "Just, think about it. Besides, what else are you gonna do while you're here?"
She had a point, but that didn't change your answer. "I dunno yet," You shrug, washing down that last bite with some beer, "I'll figure it out when it comes to me." And that was that.
---------
Birdie deflects, as she often does about some things, and Sydney just shakes her head in defeat, "All right, okay, you win." For now. She wasn't going to give in that easily, because she knew her friend could throw down in the kitchen even though she tries to claim it was not her 'calling'. Maybe it wasn't, but how could she even know when she was notorious for changing her mind about what she wanted to do every few weeks? In the time that Sydney had known her, she'd been through at least a dozen different jobs, and in hindsight, it was a wonder the other girl had even stuck out culinary school through the whole degree.
They continued eating, ordering another round of drinks before the conversation picked up again, "How does your boyfriend feel about you leaving New York?" Sydney had been pretty sure she'd seen some fairly recent post with a guy tagged on her Instagram story, one that seemed lovey-ish. Birdie scoffed, half rolling her eyes, "Oh no, you mean Gal? No, that was.. just a thing, a very short-lived thing, and funny enough I think he got back with his ex Mina like a week ago. The sex was good, I mean good good, but I knew it wasn't gonna be anything legit, he's been off and on with that girl forever. It's cool though, it was fun while it lasted." She shrugs nonchalantly, busying herself with her beer before she props her chin up into the heel of one hand and gives Sydney the look.
"What about you? Anything else you wanna tell me about your partner?" Birdie draws out the word, wiggling her brows at Syd who's brows lift in disbelief, her face heats, creeping right up from her neck and she's glad that part isn't obvious from her complexion. "W-what? You're kidding, right?" She's shaking her head at the other, waving her hands, "First of all, no. Second of all, no. Carm is my business partner and my friend, that's it." Birdie's mouth pops open, her teeth sinking into her lip to hide the grin that broke her expression, "Right, sure, Syd. Whatever helps you sleep at night."
She was off her shit to think she and Carmy were a thing, or anything at all. Why would she even think that after meeting him for like five seconds earlier in the day? It made absolutely no sense to Sydney, and it had her wondering if she needed to cut her friend off from the beer if she was already talking crazy like this after two. "I saw how he looked at you earlier," Birdie quipped, the look on her face like she knew some big secret she was keeping. Sydney wasn't having it, going on to brush off even the suggestion that Carm had been staring at her.
Carmy had definitely not been looking at her, she knew that much for certain. Sydney knew most all of his looks by this point, and the look on his face today when he saw Birdie was a new one. One that Syd couldn't place, and his behavior after, the way he'd asked about her friend then had to rush off only solidified to her that something was definitely up with him and it was because of the girl sitting across from her. The girl who was apparently very oblivious to this fact.
The two finished their dinner without talking about more about boyfriends or partners or Carmy, thankfully. They ended their night with a crushing hug, thanks to Birdie, and promises to make plans again soon when Syd had some free time from the remodel.
i can't be the only one to think this but we need a sydcarmy ice skating duo au fic based on tessa virtue/scott moir