‘From Scratch:’ Netflix’s Adapted Series Romanticizes Borderless Love, Family Unity & Healing Through Loss

By Malik Peay· Updated October 24, 2022

Love is an all-consuming indulgence to savor, comparable to the residual morsel of a melty Italian dishful of Caponata. Netflix’s From Scratch is just about that; the natural unraveling of a borderless love story where the taste of Italian food unifies two dense cultures. The adapted television series of the memoir of the same name was written by the former actor-turned-showrunner Tembekile “Tembi” Locke. Based on Tembi’s true life story with her late Sicilian chef husband Saro years ago, the screenplay reimagines her lovingly serendipitous accounts with the help of her co-creator, sister Attica Locke, and Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine.

In 2019, Zoe Saldaña (Amy Wheeler), who happens to be married to an Italian man (Marco Perego-Saldana) and is the matriarch of a culturally-blended household off-camera, was announced as the series’ star. Tembi and Saldaña’s intertwining cross-border romances anchor the way the words in the script are performed and felt. Saldaña serves as the protagonist who is reenacting Tembi’s memories of deep intimacy on-screen.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 17: (L-R) Zoe Saldaña and Tembi Locke attend Netflix’s From Scratch Special Screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on October 17, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Netflix)

Star music producer Raphael Saadiq and Laura Karpman co-scored From Scratch which opens with Saldaña’s character in a daze, staring at a flickering stovetop while experiencing treasured flashbacks. A cognitive slideshow of a series of food preparation shots flash abruptly in her mind when Saldaña is suddenly in the arms of another. Glossy-eyed, Saldaña marvels at the ceiling smiling over at an aged journal, as she opens it a cherished photo of herself with an Italian man is saved. With gratitude, she peruses through written letters while Lauryn Hill’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” plays softly in the background. Music operates as its own beating pulse within the Locke sisters’ collaborated vision.

A soaring plane interposes the reminiscing scene with the location designation, “Florence, Italy” — setting the stage for where a foreign romance will brew. Rewinding all the way back to when Amahle “Amy” Wheeler decided to study abroad in Italy to engross herself in the country’s deep-seated renaissance art, history, and culture. In the fall of 2000, Houston-raised law school student, Wheeler arrives in Piazza del Duomo carrying her luggage in front of the landmark Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore ready to take on the world.

We quickly learn Wheeler’s separated parents (Keith David & Kellita Smith) disapprove of their daughter traveling all the way to Italy to soul-search. Yet Amy’s sister, Zora (Danielle Deadwyler) proves to be the necessary support needed for Amy to have her traditional Black family warm up to her unconventional career pivot. With warming comedy, their mother Lynn mentions an over-the-phone caveat (Kellita Smith) that Amy must be weary to not fall for some “Disney Princess Castle” fantasy with an Italiano. Judith Scott plays Saldaña’s step-mom in the Netflix series, similar to her motherly role in the 2005 comedy, Guess Who.

Cigarette in one hand and a steering wheel in the other, Amy’s ex-pat friend, Sloane whisks her off in a red Italian fiat 500. From that moment on, the series teleports you through the magnific piazzas, infinite galleries, historic monuments, and palaces of Florence. While Amy gets more acquainted with her unexplored surroundings, she is lovestruck by her temporary home and completely unprepared for the fairytale that is on the horizon.

Unheedingly, Amy stumbles upon an international romance with Sicilian-born chef, Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea) whom she meets walking through the Tuscan alleyways. Butterflies pour out of each other’s stomachs at an instant glance and a steamy romance cooks up between the two. When Amy dines at Lino’s restaurant where he operates as a chef, she falls for the culinarian. With every bite and consecutive date of getting to know each other, Amy’s heart and appetite grew fonder. The Italian foodie language of Parmigiano and pasta left her utterly smitten and full.

As time passes, and the two lovebirds go from galivanting in the rain in Italy (to sharing wet movie-magic kisses) and making a huge move to Los Angeles, the newlyweds both expand on their artistic professions. Amy becomes a full-timer at a blue ribbon studio gallery and Lino scouts for opportunity in the city’s elite culinary scene. With gradual success and unforeseeable obstacles, Lino and Amy acquire a home in LA. Forming an adoptive family, the young couple welcomes Idalia (Isla Colbert) as their own and the cross-cultural families break bread despite cultural differences.

A cataclysmic event ensues that puts an expiration date on Lino and Amy ’s shared futures. Lino develops leiomyosarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer years into the marriage. With numerous medical visits and chemotherapy treatments, the relentless illness returns with more detrimental tumors that eventually grow inside his lungs. The terminal disease upends a small family’s storybook future of living happily ever after with one another.

Tembi and Attica Locke’s From Scratch is an inspiring record of collective healing and loving perseverance. Amy doesn’t spoil the hard-earned harmonies between her combined family but instead, makes the sacrifices to save her growing family in Italy and Texas from crumbling. Yet, the series demonstrates the unpredictability within the natural timeline of human life and love. We can’t forestall the uncertainty of our futures but we can surely control the way we respond and recover.

Tembi’s soulmate connection that was birthed in the Tuscan city existed as living proof that what may seem, at first, as clashing cultures can be unified through true love, family, and how we choose to endure loss. Posthumously, Tembi’s actual memoir documents her several visits to the outskirts of Sicily to reconnect with Saro’s extended family, learning their generational recipes, and bestowing more knowledge on their adopted daughter, Zoela. From Scratch is a sentimental testament to how enchanted we all are by an “unlikely” pair’s blind leap of faith. Without knowing what the future truly beholds, the magic of the human spirit radiates most when lovers vow to dive headfirst into the vastness of each other’s hearts — for better or for worse.