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

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Locke, Tembi. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781432869243.

"It was love at first sight when Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saros traditional Sicilian family did not approve of him marrying a black American woman, an actress no less. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forges on. They build a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopt at birth. Eventually, they reconcile with Saros family just as he faces a formidable cancer that will consume all their dreams. From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saros family and his origins, now she finds solace and nourishment--literally and spiritually--at her mother in laws table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saros incredible romance--an indelible love story that leaps off the pages. In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death--in Tembi Lockes case, it is both. Her story is about loss, but its really about love found. Her story is about travel, but its really about finding a home. It is about food, but its really about chasing flavor as an act of remembrance"--