FX‘s The Bear takes the idea of comfort food to a whole new level. The series is a half-hour cooking drama that not only focuses on the grander effect that food has on an individual but it also on how there’s no choice but to carry on after suffering a loss.

After losing his brother to suicide, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is left to help pick up the pieces at his family’s restaurant in Chicago following a very successful cooking career. He made a name for himself across the world as one of the best chefs to ever do it, yet it is moments like this that are a sobering reminder that even when life is going great, it can all come tumbling down at any moment. The series is a hones in on the deep connection that food has with us all, even during our most vulnerable and intimate moments.

“People have such a fascination with food and it makes sense because everybody needs food, right? That’s a part of everybody’s day,” said White in a recent interview with Shadow and Act along with co-star Ayo Edebiri. “I think what I really learned through his how food can really be used to take care of somebody and to communicate love and care.”