When Stephen Odubola was 16, he worked in a hospitality box at Chelsea's football stadium, Stamford Bridge, a steep learning curve about the inner workings of the culinary world. “It’s not like the kitchen becomes familiar with you,” the British actor tells me over Zoom. “You have to become familiar with the kitchen.” He only lasted a month in that gig, but the experience was serendipitous for his role, as newcomer Johnny in the BBC’s new four-part series about a chaotic, highly pressured restaurant kitchen, Boiling Point.
It might ring a bell. In 2021, a film with the same name, directed by Philip Barantini, about a single shift in head chef Andy’s (Stephen Graham) London restaurant won over (and stressed out) critics and audiences alike. Perhaps it whet a collective appetite because since its release, we’ve also had Jez Butterworth’s Mammals, about a high-powered chef whose life implodes, and of course, The Bear, about a high-powered chef whose life has already imploded. Odubola didn’t watch that zeitgeisty show before he started to work on Boiling Point. No cooking reality shows, either. “I didn’t want to be influenced by anything,” the 27-year-old says.
Happily, this TV spin-off is its own thing: a little like The Bear, yes, but with a pleasingly soapy (and very British) flavour. Eight months after the events of the film, we are at Point North, a Dalston restaurant that puts a spin on northern classics, and where Carly (Vinette Robinson) is now head chef. Many of the actors have returned, including Freeman (Ray Panthaki) and Emily (Hannah Walters). Johnny, desperate for work, joins the kitchen mid-shift but doesn’t have a clue. He’s accidentally causing fires, he’s searching hollandaise sauce recipes online. We learn, by the episode’s end, that Johnny has a lot of other responsibilities outside the kitchen. His story is set to unfold over the first season. Odubola calls it a “slow burn”, and the show allows for a more in-depth look at its sizeable cast. “We explore the fact that people come to work with a mask on, we put on a certain face for work, but everybody’s got issues they’re dealing with at home.”
Odubola grew up in Kennington, south London. In 2019, he played Timmy in Blue Story, a film about two best friends from south of the river, forced into rivalry because of their opposing boroughs. The film, directed by Rapman, was praised by critics for its fresh, emotional depiction of gang warfare, though attracted controversy after police had to break up fights at screenings in Birmingham. “I was just happy to be a part of it, because it shed a light on how anybody that’s not from that lifestyle could get caught up in that lifestyle,” Odubola says of the film, which seems likely to achieve cult status. “When you see a young boy that’s caught up in crime, you see the end result, once everybody’s labelled them a fraud without knowing the backstory and how that person’s got there.”
One of the highlights of Boiling Point is its depiction of a high-pressure kitchen in London, a melting pot of personality types and nationalities (even if the show was shot in a stage kitchen in Manchester). “Just having a vibe of London that we tried to recreate made me feel at home on set,” Odubola says. That attention to detail went into the actors’ preparation, too. The cast collaborated with chef Ellis Barrie, who helped them play the part of real kitchen workers. “He would tell us how to cut meat properly, what words to use, which boards to use,” Odubola says. “So you learn and actually become a chef, and do everything that a chef would do.” It was imperative, he explains, to know what to do when they’re in the background: “It’s not like you’re going to follow every single stage direction, so you just have to be in the zone.” (This training has transformed his at-home cooking, Odubola says: he’s never cut meat the same way again.)
It remains to be seen if Boiling Point will capture the public imagination like The Bear, but for Odubola, the experience has already been perspective-shifting. “When I worked in hospitality, I always had the respect for waiters, but working on Boiling Point, you just have a different level of appreciation,” he says. “When I go to restaurants now, I’m always looking into the kitchen and like, ‘I know how that feels.’” Perhaps, after they have wolfed down this new series, audiences may feel the same.
‘Boiling Point’ airs on BBC 1 from 1 October
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
