Staying Fit
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Liza Colón-Zayas, 49, stars as a feisty prep cook on the popular FX series The Bear, and recently made her Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy Between Riverside and Crazy. She tells AARP how she honed her culinary skills for her on-screen role, how it felt to take to the Broadway stage and how she plans to celebrate a milestone birthday.
What can you tell us about Season 2 of The Bear [premiering June 22 on Hulu]?
You’ll learn more — a little more personal things about each character, and it’s going to blow your mind. That’s all I’m going to say.
Can you tell if a project is going to connect with audiences like The Bear did?
I’ve been wrong so many times. When we did The Bear, I liked the pilot. I thought, This is amazing, but no one’s going to watch it because it’s so specific. And yet it’s that specificity, that authenticity, people really dig. It really is.
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How are your real-life cooking skills?
I do love to cook, except since doing the show and getting a little training, now I question how I can improve it or take it to the next level, which I didn’t do before, and that’s cool.
What kind of training did you do?
Well, the first season I had none. I just was good at looking like I was banging around a spatula. For Season 2, I did a week with Chef David Waltuck, who was responsible for the [New York] restaurant — which was a big deal — Chanterelle. Now, he trains disenfranchised people in the Bronx. He’s amazing. I had a week with him, and on my first day, both my hands were really cut up.
Colón-Zayas plays a rough-around-the-edges prep cook in FX's "The Bear."
Matt Dinerstein/FX
What surprises you most about the restaurant world?
The chefs and cooks — how much they really dig the pressure. That what looks terrifying to me is like, “You want that?” You could ask the same thing of actors: “Aren't you terrified being on stage?” And it’s like, “A little bit, but that’s part of the rush.” That surprised me.
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