When the FX series “The Bear” first burst onto screens last summer, it plunged viewers directly into a vortex of tumult and chaos.

In the kitchen of the Chicago sandwich shop around which the show revolved, cooks and staffers raced around hot stoves, barking at one another in an endless, frantic attempt to keep up with the flood of orders. Within seconds, the audience felt keenly the level of adrenaline coursing through every body in the place.

As an encore, the show’s creators have taken that atmosphere of panicky intensity — and ratcheted it up.

第二季,滴在星期四rsday, June 22, does exactly what a sequel should do. It takes everything that made“The Bear”distinctively alluring — not just the insane level of kinetic energy on display, but the wit of the writing, the off-kilter shifts in dramatic focus, and the contributions of a practically flawless ensemble cast — and makes it bigger and even more probing.

Think of it as “The Godfather Part II” strategy.

The opening season, as powerful as it was in its own right, emerges now in hindsight as a piece of essential exposition. It introduced us to the central premise, in which Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White, his hangdog stoicism as irresistible as ever) gives up a burgeoning career as an international chef to try to salvage “The Beef,” the failing eatery that has been in his family for a generation.

It introduced us, too, to the constellation of co-workers helping to make that happen: Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), the endearingly brash and hesitant young chef whose aspirations outpace her experience; Richie (the wonderfully gritty Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the family friend whose importance to the restaurant rests on nothing more than the fact that he’s always been there; and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), the longtime employee whose maternal presence is suffused with her uncertainty about whether she knows far more about the business than these youngsters — or far less.

But if the stakes last year already felt pretty life-or-death — orders going out late, too many reservations coming in at once — those turn out to have been relatively small potatoes. Because now, Carmy and his associates have decided to open an entirely new restaurant, “The Bear” (named, like the show, after Carmy’s family nickname), on the site where “The Beef” once stood. And they’ve given themselves six weeks to do it.

The brilliant stroke of creator Christopher Storer (“Ramy”) and co-executive producer Joanna Calo (“Bojack Horseman”) is to use the same visual and dramatic vocabulary in depicting this project that they did to evoke a single meal service at “The Beef.”

Once again, the camera races in long, vertiginous takes around the decrepit renovation site, getting right up in the actors’ faces as they yell at one another. The dialogue is often multilayered and at high volume, like a Robert Altman soundtrack on speed.

The terrifying shots of sandwich orders spilling out of the printer have now been replaced by frequent, equally terrifying close-ups of the enormous poster on the restaurant wall that marks the approach of opening day like some nightmarish Advent calendar. The season’s magnificent centerpiece episode, without seeming glib or overdetermined, sheds some light on how the characters got this way.

Naturally, the sensual pleasures of eating and cooking remain the heart of “The Bear.” It’s a food pornucopia, filled with countless montages of chopping, slicing, sauteing and grilling.

Yet, as part of the expanded scale of the new season, up from eight episodes to 10, the complex story now takes in other aspects of the restaurant business as well. In a deeply moving plot twist, the importance of guest service comes to the fore for one of the main characters, taking its place alongside food itself.

With more room to maneuver, the show finds space for new characters and gives more attention to returning ones. Abby Elliott moves with beatific grace into a co-starring role as Carmy’s sister Natalie, who finds her purpose as the project manager for the restaurant renovation. Oliver Platt gets more screen time as the mob-connected uncle who bankrolls the restaurant. Carmy even gets a love interest, played with extraordinary charm by Molly Gordon (“Animal Kingdom,” “Booksmart”).

There are splendidly conceived set pieces as well, including a couple of loving, testy interactions between Sydney and her father (Robert Townsend), an extended awakening for the pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and a brief, radiant cameo byOlivia Colman.

It all serves the central conceit of “The Bear,” which is to trace the filaments of connection between food and literally everything else in our lives.

Perhaps the most beautiful moment in the entire season comes when Sydney plucks a moment of calm amid the whirlwind to make a simple omelet for Natalie, who has been so consumed with tasks and deadlines that she’s forgotten to eat. It’s a perfect distillation of all the tenderness, love and joy that run as a steady undercurrent to the frenzy of “The Bear.”

Reach Joshua Kosman:jkosman@sfchronicle.com; Twitter:@JoshuaKosman