Here's What A C-Fold Is, As Seen On The Bear

If you've been keeping up with "The Bear" on Hulu, you've undoubtedly adopted some of the lingo the characters use behind kitchen doors. If you find yourself saying "behind you" in the grocery store, "yes, chef" when your boss asks you to do something, or exclaiming that food is "dying on the pass" when dinner's ready, you might be hopelessly indoctrinated into kitchen culture. The lure of "The Bear" for actual restaurant professionals, however, hinges on authentic details about the competition and collaboration of the business that even a regular customer might overlook. For example, when Natalie 'Sugar' Berzatto goes into labor in season 3, she's trying to lift a box of C-folds into her car. For those not in the know, C-folds are a nickname for a type of commercial paper towel that is folded into thirds; when they're unfolded, they make a C shape.

It might seem like a mundane detail to include C-folds in "The Bear" to the casual observer, but these particular paper towels are a staple in millions of restaurants. They're inexpensive, they fit into a variety of different dispensers, and you can use them for guest bathrooms, handwashing sinks in the kitchen, and even tossed into bags of takeout. They're so ubiquitous that if you ask a restaurant person to hand you a stack of C-folds, they'll probably think you've spent time in the industry.

Whether you know it or not, you've used a C-fold; you just didn't realize it had a name. Much like a "RoboCop" (a food processor) or a "salamander" (a broiler), restaurant equipment and supplies tend to earn nicknames to make communication faster. For example, it's quicker to ask a line cook or a busser for a stack of C-folds than it is to explain that you need the paper towels folded in thirds.

C-folds measure around 10-by-12 inches unfolded and 10-by-4 inches folded. They're tightly stacked so that when they're inside a dispenser, it's easy to grab as many towels as you need at a time using only gravity. A C-fold dispenser is just a rectangular tube with an opening at the top or side and a slot at the bottom. This is important because electric paper towel dispensers can break when used constantly, and no restaurant owner has time (or money) to fix them. You'll find C-folds in millions of guest bathrooms at restaurants, hotels, and airports, but even if the place is super fancy and doesn't offer paper towels to customers (aka the "front of the house"), you can be sure almost all the handwashing sinks out back have C-fold dispensers nearby. Everyone in the hospitality industry uses C-folds, which explains why Sugar Berzatto would attempt to lift a case of them at nine months pregnant — industry workers always need clean hands.