Sumith Prasad
John Wells’ drama film ‘Burnt’ revolves around the life of Adam Jones, a celebrated chef who worked at a Parisian restaurant run by Jean-Luc, his mentor. After parting ways with his mentor and the restaurant, Adam disappears from the public eye, only to reappear in the lives of his former colleagues with an aspiration to run a prestigious restaurant and earn a third Michelin star. Bradley Cooper plays Adam, who overcomes drug and alcohol addictions to open a new chapter of his life as a chef. Intrigued by Cooper’s portrayal, we have found out whether the actor had learned cooking for the character. Here’s what we can share about the same!
Bradley Cooper Used to Work as a Chef
Bradley Cooper joined the cast of ‘Burnt’ with prior experience as a chef. The actor had worked as a chef, which helped him adapt to the character Adam Jones. “When I was a kid I would screw up cooking with my grandmother. It was an Italian family, so cooking was a huge part of it,” Cooper told Yahoo! Movies. “I was a busboy at a Greek restaurant and a prep cook at a [Italian] restaurant called Mirabella’s in Somers Point, New Jersey. I’d be there from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., just cooking,” he added.
When Cooper joined the cast of the film, celebrity chef and chef consultant of the film Marcus Wareing knew exactly what he has to teach the actor to play Adam. “Bradley’s role is effectively the head chef. So my job with him wasn’t just to teach him to cook. […] My thinking was making sure that he is moving like a chef and looking like a chef and directing the kitchen like a chef. Then eventually we would get to the food that he would be given by the kitchen behind him to put on a plate and dress the plate,” Wareing told People.
Cooper was a commendable student and even astounded his “teacher,” who is a partial inspiration behind the character Adam. “He’d [Cooper] watch me dress a plate and copy it almost identically. He’d say, ‘Is that okay? Are you happy with that?’ And I’d stand back and think, ‘It’s taken me all my life to get here and you just do it straightaway!’ He’s very good,” Wareing added. In addition, Cooper was inspired by real-life chefs to shape the characteristics of Adam. “I created a guy I see as a mixture of the three guys I studied: Marcus Wareing, Gordon Ramsay, and Marco Pierre White. He’s a combination. Little things he does, physical things, are basically things I stole from all three of those guys,” Cooper continued to Yahoo! Movies.
Cooper’s experience as a chef helped him immensely to act in the opening scene of the film, in which Adam shucks oysters. “I shucked about 60 oysters for the opening scene,” Cooper told Marie Claire. “I shucked oysters when I was a prep cook and if you’re ever going to slice your hands, it’s going to be while shucking an oyster. I even said to [director] John Wells, ‘Bro, just to let you know if this goes south, you better find a lot of other stuff to shoot!'” he added. Thus, Cooper combined his prior professional cooking knowledge, lessons learned from consultant Marcus Wareing, and his observations about celebrated real-life chefs to prepare for the character Adam.
Read More: Is Burnt Based on the True Story of a Chef?
