By Victoria Chen
Published July 22, 2026 Updated July 22, 2026
As stars of “The Bear,” a comedy-drama about a fine-dining restaurant in Chicago, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach have learned a lot about friendship and professional kitchens. Their bond extends offscreen, too: The two are close friends and avid home cooks, who, like many of us, rely on a few go-to recipes.
“When I work, I can’t do anything new,” Ms. Edebiri said. One of her big hits? Melissa Clark’s creamy corn pasta with basil.
“I’ve cooked from so many recipes for so many years,” Mr. Moss-Bachrach said. “But at this point, I’m either too tired or burned out, and I mostly just make the things that I know.” His rotation features easy-to-remember recipes, like Tamar Adler’s crepes and Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce.
Among his favorites is his mother-in-law’s vegetarian borscht, a recipe that holds a lot of meaning in his family.
Recipe: Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Vegetarian Borscht
Credit...Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Anna Billingskog.
Below or on YouTube, watch Mr. Moss-Bachrach teach Ms. Edebiri his family recipe. (His mother-in-law is Ukrainian, and he even brought his daughters along to the shoot for a little family history lesson.) The actors talk about their restaurant and cooking experiences, both real and fictional.
Here are excerpts from the interview and the outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.
Ebon, can you start off by telling us what borscht is?
EBON MOSS-BACHRACH It’s a dish that is really part of the fabric of Ukrainian culture. Every family makes it, and there’s many, many different iterations of it. Some have meat, some have beans, some have tomatoes. It’s a real staple of Eastern Europe and a real workhorse. Almost like the equivalent of an Italian marinara, where it becomes reflective of the different families in the different regions.
21:14
Credit...Victoria Chen
How often did your mother-in-law, Lidia Yemchuk, make this for you?
MOSS-BACHRACH My daughters were raised on this. She lived in L.A., and every time we would get off the plane and we would go to their house, borscht would always be the first thing we would eat.
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’ve had borscht before. Beet is not part of my cultural food pyramid, I would say. So, I’m excited to have this borscht.
MOSS-BACHRACH It wasn’t for me either, because a lot of the time, I think in the U.S., borscht becomes like this strange sugared beet thing. It’s in a jar, and that’s not really for me. This is a savory dish. There is some sweetness from the beets, but this is more a cabbage soup. The flavor is more of a cabbage soup than a beet.
Before today, have you both ever cooked together?
MOSS-BACHRACH We’ve cooked together! We’ve gone on vacation together, and Ayo’s come over to the house.
EDEBIRI Lazy stuff. I haven’t really cooked for you properly, I feel like.
MOSS-BACHRACH That’s correct.
EDEBIRI OK. Is that something that probably I should change?
MOSS-BACHRACH Yeah!
Are you often cooking from a recipe or are you usually freestyling?
MOSS-BACHRACH I’ve cooked from so many recipes for so many years, and The New York Times recipe app was riding shotgun with me for a long time. But at this point, I’m either too tired or burned out, and I mostly just make the things that I know. I’m not as adventurous and explorative as I used to be.
EDEBIRI I feel like, when I work, I can’t do anything new.
Do you remember what’s in your recipe box?
MOSS-BACHRACH The first thing that pops into mind is Tamar Adler, she has crepes by like, proportions. I really love that recipe. Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce, but that, I don’t really need to check it, because there’s only three ingredients. It’s just like tomatoes and butter and onion.
EDEBIRI There was this summer corn pasta. You like, cook the corn and then you blend up half of it. That was one of my big hits. Also the Alison Roman shallot pasta.
Recipe: Creamy Corn Pasta With Basil
Credit...Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
What’s the best thing you learned from your time on “The Bear” that you’ve brought into your own cooking or home kitchen?
MOSS-BACHRACH Omelet?
EDEBIRI I can’t eat eggs after that omelet.
MOSS-BACHRACH Oh, really?
EDEBIRI Me and Courtney [Storer, culinary producer on “The Bear”] made that omelet — truly, like, because we made it! We made the recipe, we figured out what chip would go best with it — salt and vinegar — and we ate all of it because we both were like, “We don’t want to waste food.”
MOSS-BACHRACH I stayed for that day. I didn’t shoot that day, but I wanted to because I’ve tried so many times over the years — I watched that Jacques Pépin YouTube of him making the omelets so many times. I just can’t figure it out. So I stayed to watch Coco and Ayo make the omelet.
What cooking skills did you need the most help on before you started “The Bear”?
MOSS-BACHRACH It’s like this [gesturing to Ayo chopping onions], it’s like mise en place. That’s the thing that sells the cooking show. It’s just the drilling of the cutting.
EDEBIRI I think also, in relation to mise en place, just the steps. Like when to do what for efficiency and for cleanliness.
MOSS-BACHRACH One thing I learned on “The Bear” was that when I would cook before, I was like doing this a lot [rapidly stirring the ingredients in the pot]. And then Matty [Matheson] was like: “Just leave the stuff alone. Just let it do its thing. You don’t need to be constantly moving things around. Let them interact with the heat and let some time go by, move it around so their friends can interact with the heat.” I like that philosophy.
EDEBIRI You know what I — it’s not a skill — but a gadget that I got from “The Bear” that now I love. The scrapers. I love a scraper. Now, I can’t be without a scraper.
Credit...Taylor Miller for The New York Times
Have you ever cut yourselves while cooking?
MOSS-BACHRACH Oh my God.
EDEBIRI Oh, yeah! What’s your worst one?
MOSS-BACHRACH When I’ve had the mandoline.
EDEBIRI Oh my God, mine is a mandoline, too!
MOSS-BACHRACH Getting cocky.
EDEBIRI My friend came over to make dinner, and I actually was like, this is like fully God acting in my house. I started gossiping, and it was good, too. I remember what it was, it was good, and I was like, “Yeah, girl,” and then — my fingertip changed for a minute. When I had to do TSA PreCheck, it would buffer because it was like, this is not your hand.
Can you tell us about your previous work in the food service industry?
EDEBIRI My first job was as a dishwasher in a nursing home. And then when I was in college, and after college, too —
MOSS-BACHRACH ABC Kitchen, right?
EDEBIRI ABC Kitchen. Started in the reservations office, then we worked up to the host stand, then I got to serving. Then, when V opened, I would be a barista at V. Sometimes, I would have a double-shift day, I would do V as a barista, and then serve at Kitchen. Sometimes I would pop into Cocina to cover. I’ve served a lot of famous people. This is so name-droppy.
MOSS-BACHRACH All right, go go go. We’re done chopping, so the gossip gods are not going to scrape your fingers.
EDEBIRI Steve Buscemi came in and Paul McCartney. They were on a double date, and everyone was so nice.
MOSS-BACHRACH They were together.
EDEBIRI They were together, and then they gave me a hundred-dollar tip. And I was, like, the host. I remember being like, “God will shine upon you forever.”
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?
MOSS-BACHRACH My first thing is, she would be a Shirley Temple.
EDEBIRI Thank you so much.
Recipe: Shirley Temple
Credit...Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Victoria Granof.
MOSS-BACHRACH Was that good?
EDEBIRI That was really nice.
MOSS-BACHRACH I know my friend. She’s a sweet fizzy cocktail.
EDEBIRI You could be this borscht, but with a little hot sauce.
MOSS-BACHRACH I got range.
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