When Houstonian Tembi Locke bumped into Saro on a street in Florence, Italy, it was love at first sight.
In that moment, she couldn’t have known that man would become her life — and that she’d eventually lose him to a rare form of cancer. Saro was a professional Italian chef, and cooking and eating his native Sicilian food was a passion the two shared over the years.
So, after his death, Locke returned to Sicily with the couple’s adopted daughter so that she could become closer with Saro’s family, who’d initially disliked Locke because she was a Black American.
But, in the warmth of her mother-in-law’s kitchen, Locke discovered both the nourishment of simple, fresh food and the solace of a close-knit community.
Her 2019 memoir about that experience, From Scratch, explores starting over, forgiveness, multicultural identify, and culinary discovery. And it includes 16 recipes from the couple’s culinary adventures. It’s also an inpirational new limited series on Netflix she created with her sister, Attica Locke, who is the author of several novels and was a writer for the TV series Empire. The top-rated series stars Zoe Saldaña as Amy and Eugenio Mastrandrea as Lino.
Attica says it was an amazing experience working with her sister.
“This project wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have each other. We had a shorthand and shared memory, both as the person who lived this experience and the person who witnessed so much of it firsthand. And we have similar tastes and a shared understanding of the tone we wanted for the show—a series that could make you laugh and cry in the same scene. We were also able to emotionally support each other when filming some of the more emotionally difficult scenes,” she said.
Added Tembi, “This show is so deeply rooted in our collaboration with and respect for each other. My sister knows craft and story in ways that I am constantly in awe of, so I learned a great deal working alongside her. It was an honor to see her in her excellence.”
Tembi says the work of adapting her novel began even before the book was officially in print.
“Hello Sunshine optioned it as a manuscript in early 2019. Almost immediately, I knew the story would have to change for the screen while also fundamentally staying the same, emotionally and thematically. Looking back now, years after the writers’ room, the first day on set, and now after its release, I know that all this love was too big for me to hold onto alone. It had to be shared,” she said.
And Attica, who is an author herself, says she was careful in translating the book to screen.
“I wanted to make a series that was honoring my brother-in-law, his family, and his relationship and marriage to my sister for which I had the privilege of having a front-row seat. And I wanted to capture the particular, bittersweet tone of the way they lived their lives—aware of life’s risks, not untouched by tragedy, but still so fully alive every day, still creating beauty and celebrating love in the face of the unimaginable,” she said.
From Scratch is now streaming on Netflix.
PHOTO: Tembi Locke and Attica 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)