is back for Season 2 on Hulu, and food nerds are rejoicing. Season 1’s fast and furious pace has relaxed a bit in the show’s second season; there’s less yelling and fewer outbursts. Instead, that intensity is replaced by the latent, looming chaos of trying to build and open a brand-new restaurant on a shoestring budget. Everything’s going wrong, but it’s fine—mostly. There’s even, dare I say, a note of joyful optimism, at least in the first four episodes that I watched.
As we rejoin the crew for Season 2, we’re smack-dab in the middle of the restaurant renovation. Walls are coming down! Budgets are tight! “Every second counts,” reads a sticky note on the wall. Opening a restaurant is hard and chaotic and incredibly expensive, if you didn’t know. There are permits, and inspectors, and somehow everything costs at least $2,000. The timeline to open within months is not just tight, not just ambitious, but “crazy,” as Nat , who’s project managing, puts it.
Meanwhile, Marcus goes to stage in Copenhagen with a chef friend of Carmy’s in order to develop his pastry skills. It’s a joy to watch him learn and experience new things , though his friendly, calm, one-on-one staging experience strikes me as a bitin a fine-dining setting. Tina and Ebraheim head to culinary school, to mixed results, while Fak , Richie , and Nat are tasked with the seemingly impossible restaurant refresh.