While he’s an imposing presence, it’s his baritone voice that has sustained him. “I got interested in voice-over when my daughter was born, and I wanted to stay in town,” he says.

“And I’ve always been a big fan of cartoons and animation. My wife was a newsperson, so she did a lot of announcing and she made me take a class with her — which I was not very good at. She got an A, but I didn’t. It was a voice-over class.”

Star of ‘The Bear’ not perfect

One of the real hits among the streamers is Hulu’s “The Bear,” now enjoying its third season. The show is about a prize-winning chef who must return to his hometown to run his dead brother’s sandwich shop in Chicago.

The series stars Jeremy Allen White as the perfectionist chef who is in over his head in his chaotic kitchen. White tells me that he does not share his character’s predilection for perfection. “I am so the opposite. Like, I think that I ... it's something I admire a lot about (his character) Carmy, and I think it's something that I try and I strive for in my life. But no, that's not a quality that I think Carm and I share. I struggle often.”

Home cooking acknowledged at last

It’s about time that American home cooking was recognized for what it is: innovative, practical and delicious. “The Great American Recipe” is celebrating just that with home cooks competing every week on PBS with their own special concoctions until the top three earn the chance to win the competition.

Next Monday the hopeful chefs will display their bake-sale expertise and also present a yummy baked breakfast item.

Among the judges this year is Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Tim Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth confesses that it was his mother who first inspired him to become a chef.

“My mom was a stay-at-home mom, so she raised us, and she cooked everything from scratch,” he says.

“We had things like chicken and dumplings, Sunday pot roast, some Tex-Mex chili tacos.” Born in Houston, Hollingsworth moved to California when he was in the second grade.

“I loved to eat,” he says, “I love food and food was a big part of my family. It was the one time that we would sit down as a family and have dinner. It was pretty important to my mom and everybody had a specific job — whether it was setting the table or helping my mom prep the food or cleaning up afterwards, washing the dishes, so that was the time in my life when all the family was together. As a young man I didn’t understand that until I got older and appreciated it.”

———

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC