From Scratch: la forza di un amore

Tembi Locke, an American actress, falls in love with Saro Cipolla, a Sicilian chef she meets in Italy and marries despite the objections of his family. This memoir follows their life together in Los Angeles, his long fight against cancer, and the love of food that bound them. After he dies, Tembi takes their young daughter Zoela back to Sicily, to the family she once felt excluded from, and slowly rebuilds a bond with her mother-in-law in the farmhouse. Recipes appear throughout.

Readers who enjoy memoirs of grief and cooking will find honest writing about illness, race and family. It shows how a table, and a shared language of food, can help people reach each other across loss, and across cultural differences.

Inward-looking and contemplative; an easy read.

Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?