From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

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While the characters in the series have fictionalised names, the plot is based on the story of Tembi and her first husband, Saro Gullo, who she met and fell in love with in Italy. Italy is an important location for both the book at film, as it is where Tembi - who speaks fluent Italian - met Saro. He led the way, and the gust of wintry air that greeted me on the other side of the door sobered me instantly. The next day, Tembi and Croce attend Saro’s funeral before interring some of his ashes at a cemetery. Conscious to make a life of her own and not rely on her parents to fund her dream, she works in a bar.

However, the couple faced a number of obstacles, as is shown in the series, with Locke's family criticising her decision to study abroad, and Gullo’s family disapproving of his decision to wed a Black American woman from Texas.Her Afrocentrism came with conditions, and at that moment those conditions included black first, second, and always. They left my three young brothers at home with Aubrey’s mom, the youngest of whom was barely a year old and whom I had met only twice.

From Scratch is based on Tembi Locke’s 2019 book of the same name which became Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick, as well as a New York Times bestseller. I slid across the marble floor at breakneck speed to be the first to grab the communal phone that hung on a pillar in the center of the living room. If I had to choose only one (which is hard), I would say to activate a brave heart in how we love and how we connect.Seasoned with moments of wonderful humor, beautiful romance, and a few gut punches along the way, this Netflix adaptation of Tembi Locke’s memoir is a series that makes you appreciate what you have and long for what you don’t. By the end of my sophomore year, I had taken up a tepid but steady affair with my Italian TA, Connor. Later, after a walk through Florence, an afternoon of window browsing, and then dinner, she told my dad, “And don’t even think about objecting to their age difference.

He was a rapturous combination of every stereotype of Italian men—sexy, attentive, allergic to monogamy. When we finally made it to Florence under the midday summer sun, we stumbled out of the bus near the church of San Lorenzo. But the way he had kept his eyes on me made me suddenly aware that I wished I had worn a better bra. Lino declares his love for Amy just before she leaves Italy for LA, and the couple become inseparable. As she and I sipped cappuccinos and sampled pastries in a café across from the Boboli gardens, out of nowhere she began a quiet but very determined inquiry into why I was studying in Italy at all.I suspected I had to be open, as spontaneous and brave and intuitive as the woman who had chosen to come to Italy in the first place. Children, enchanted with the large sloppy flakes, stuck out their tongues to the sky as their parents drifted into and out of coffee bars, murmuring in disbelief at the snow. Now having to take him in the flesh—his eyes, nose, mouth, and gentle brow—made me rock back slightly on my heels. Amy proposes to Lino and they plan to marry where they met in Florence, but Lino’s father makes a point of not coming and forbids Lino’s mother, sister and niece from attending. Eating my pastries as I looked out the window, on the bus ride from the Rome airport to Florence, I watched the passing cypress trees, hills, and farmhouses.

I wrote term papers on the Medicis’ artistic rift with Pope Leo X and moved into my own apartment with two other women—one American, one Canadian, and one very impish Italian DJ who slept with the Canadian. In what ways does Tembi start her life “from scratch,” and in what ways is she building off a preexisting foundation? No matter what opinions they might have had, at the end of the day, I believe they wanted me to be happy. Bringing her story and memoir to screen has been an emotional process for Tembi, who's admitted: “I knew on a soul level what I was saying yes to, and I knew that to do the work we needed to do, it was going to ask of me to relive everything. Filmed in Italy and Los Angeles last year, the show is a limited series on Netflix which consists of eight episodes for viewers to sink their teeth into.There were challenging aspects to reconstructing my past on the page—the emotional journey of revisiting and then making sense of aspects of my experience that still needed exploring before I could share. Caroline had finally arrived, and Lindsey was getting her up to speed moments later while we settled into our corner table downstairs in the cantina. I imagined Sloane had tried everything, which was exactly what I was thinking about when we rounded the corner of Via dell’Acqua and I collided with a man. At the same time, we wanted to show how food changes over the course of a life in terms of this couple, and the way that food can be used to both soothe and control. The diverse crowd in Cefalù spikes Zoela’s curiosity, leading to a discussion of race, immigration, and slavery.