Courtney Storer, The Bear’s culinary producer, is getting excited for the biggest night in television — and not just because her show is nominated for 23 Emmys.
The renowned chef — and sister of showrunner Chris Storer — is taking her culinary skills beyond the small screen for a curated cocktail and burger menu for the stars in addition to viewers at home.
Along with Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and mixologist Charles Joly, Courtney, 40, partnered with Johnnie Walker to curate a menu of Blue Label cocktails and classic American handheld bites that rival the appeal of Syd’s sour-cream-and-onion-chip omelet on the show. You know the one.
“One of my favorite things to do as a chef is to take a fun spin and reinvent a classic that really complements a cocktail and allows people to bring it into their own homes,” Courtney told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, which air on September 15. “Something that really caught my attention is the idea that people can go and try this at home at these beautiful restaurants on the Blue List.”
If you’re not a member of the cast or crew of award-winning shows like The Bear or RuPaul’s Drag Race (of which Courtney is a self-proclaimed fan), you can still enjoy the cocktail and burger pairings in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago.
The Bear, which follows a young chef as he transforms his family sandwich shop when he returns home to Chicago, centers on the restaurant industry. But fans of the show know that the appeal goes much deeper beyond the surface of the culinary world.
“Connection is important,” Courtney told Us. “Storytelling, bringing out things that people connect with in their own hearts and minds [is important]. How do you make an omelet or how do you make a Scotch cocktail that someone can connect to? What storytelling is there that draws people in? When you think about hospitality, that’s what we’re all trying to do is bring joy and love to people’s hearts.”
Part of Courtney’s job as culinary producer on The Bear is to teach the actors to cook and move around the kitchen like real chefs, as all cooking and food on the show is authentic. Her star student on the cast, and the actor she would trust to cook her a meal, is Moss-Bachrach, her collaborator for the Johnnie Walker campaign.
“Ebon is the best,” she told Us of Moss-Bachrach, who took home the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series last year and is up for the same award this time around. “He loves food, he loves restaurants. Him and I have a long list of restaurants that we just adore and chefs that we admire and respect. He really, really loves the hospitality industry.”
Courtney jokingly added: “Honestly, [Ebon] owes me a couple meals.”
Moss-Bachrach is not the only one on the cast that shares Courtney’s sentiment about the importance of food, though.
“Food is universal. It’s far and wide beyond just what we do on television,” she told Us. “Most of our crew and our cast at one point or another had been involved in a restaurant, either as a diner or worked there. And I think connecting everybody to the core of hospitality was a very universal language for all of us.”
Fans 21 and older can experience Courtney’s culinary combinations by exploring Johnnie Walker’s Blue List, including the Carmelized Onion Burger paired with Elegance in Motion and the Chicago-Style Burger paired with Lights, Coffee, Action!
The Emmys will air live on ABC Sunday, September 15, at 8 p.m. ET.
