The Scallop tells the love story
Which is why Jeremy was pointing to it in that interview.
The scallop dish that wins the stars is based on Carmy and Syd pushing each other and it represents their relationship journey.
Syd was pushing Carmy to deal with his family stuff through food since S2.
Because cooking was how she dealt with her mom stuff with the cola ribs.
Syd led Carmy to continue working out his feelings through food. And he inspired her the same way with the blood orange hamachi.
Somehow she felt the feeling in that dish because it’s magic realism. The show has Ebra narrate that at the end. Similar to Like Water For Chocolate, the idea of food as a pathway to healing and love. Also referencing true love with Rob Reiner and The Princess Bride with Ebra saying, “As you wish”. Which in that film means, “I love you.”
The scallop started out as a seven fishes, which was Syd referencing Carmy. Syd did that after Carmy told her and Marcus his mom drove her car into his house.
Claire told Carmy to just reclaim cannoli (not deal with his stuff in back of it) from his mom while Carmy sat up all night drawing a menu for Syd and talking about stuff. But Claire is a big phony so never really got to know him. Just like she only talked about Mikey once and then indirectly from then on.
The illustrated chaos menu he shows Syd the next day has fishes on it. Syd then creates a seven fishes for Friends & Family that is served to her father.
Carmy never gets to meet her dad and even flips out about the fishes getting cold in the kitchen. Because it’s getting served to Emmanuel. But Carmy did this to himself because he’s dating Claire and she’s out in the FOH, too.
Carmy didn’t want to go out there on F&F because he didn’t want Syd’s dad to see him talking to Claire, LOL. Things were going south for him that’s why he started acting up before he literally got stuck in a prison of his own design.
He gets locked in the walk-in and tells the truth out loud, Claire hears it, and walks away from the relationship. Syd is waiting for him when he gets out.
The very next day in S3, Syd shows up, and Carmy has gotten rid of all the other fishes (in the sea, i.e. Claire) and only kept the scallop (Syd, and all her flavors).
Syd is annoyed he changed all her shit up, but she validates his reasoning that they didn’t need all the other fishes and it’s better for service. (Syd is glad Claire is gone, too.)
The scallop is also presented in its shell which is very Venus-coded and will be tied to Carmy watching Syd cook a scallop later in S4.
Syd’s scallop dish goes viral and Shapiro tries to poach her because of this dish. But the truth is, Carmy made her dish into the scallop and she knows this was not just her dish, but it is her flavors.
Carmy also knows Syd is seeing someone outside the restaurant, because he comments on her outfit. This in the back of Carmy’s mind all S4. I’m pretty sure he hid her cleaver because she used it to open the scallop shells and returns it in S5 in a very sly way.
In S3, Carmy starts sublimating his feelings into a lamb dish now, based on Syd but he can’t get it right. He dresses it with sauces based on her outfits. That’s about someone being in love and his notebooks in S5 make that clear.
Both these dishes are an example of their “you push me and I push you” thing. The scallop has Syd’s flavors, but seven fishes was pointing to dealing with his family stuff.
After Carmy crashes out, Syd has to make the scallop work with three components and then it truly becomes her dish. Carmy is distraught because he’s in love with her and knows he messed up and believes she doesn’t need or want him anymore.
Eventually, Carmy makes the lamb Tonnato dish based on both Syd and his mom, and Syd loves it. He recontextualizes the Tonnato story his mom told him as a story about how he loves Syd and she changed his life for the better. He also used limited ingredients and what was available just like Syd did.
Syd in turn serves her cola ribs without risotto in S5, just with plain polenta, making the ribs the star. Carmy is the one who encourages her to do it, a reversal of his envy of how good she was back in S1.
I just rewatched S1 and Syd wanted Carmy on board with the ribs first, and threw in the risotto suggestion just to make him feel like he was included on the dish.
When she served the ribs in S5 to the guests, it was just about her mother, and truly her heart on a plate, as she always intended. They show Carmy tasting the ribs and going back for seconds (probably thirds) which is a signal about his healing.
Carmy tells Syd she won two stars for the scallop and gives her all the credit (which she deserves) and she starts to go into worry mode and goes back to the kitchen realizes she doesn’t want to keep work and life separate anymore and goes to run into Carmy’s arms. They run to each other’s, really, and he drops everything for her.
The scallop dish tells a huge part of their love story, because Carmy’s notebooks in S5 reveal that he dreamt of Syd coming into his life one day. The idea of her superseded his thoughts of Claire as a teenager.
Just like he subtracts all the other fishes to make a single scallop.
He just didn’t already know his dream girl yet, but envisioned ingredients like scallops and sauces that later become directly connected to Syd in the narrative.
Syd arrived at The Beef with ideas about what she wanted, too. She later tells Donna she’s getting the restaurant and her son.
Syd and Carmy both knew the moment they laid eyes on each other but were scared. Carmy saw himself as washed up at that point and he was depressed and Syd didn’t want any workplace romance to get in the way of her getting another shot at success. But they still believed in each other and had a shared dream from the moment they meet.
Syd is literally Carmy’s dream girl from before S1, but he had to put in the work and get out of his own way to be able to truly show up for her and win her trust.
This is a very carefully crafted love story. It’s magic realism about love told through food.
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