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

Now a limited Netflix series starring Zoë Saldaña!

This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews), set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours.

It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef Saro on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marriage to a Black American woman. Heartbroken but undeterred, the couple built a life in Los Angeles filled with love, careers, friendships, and the joy of raising their adopted daughter.

Eventually, they reconciled with Saro’s family just as he faced a cancer that would consume their shared dreams.

From Scratch chronicles the summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she learns to rebuild her life in her husband’s hometown. Once estranged from Saro’s family, she finds solace at her mother-in-law’s table and healing through food, community, and tradition.

In Sicily, it is said every story begins with a marriage or a death—in Tembi Locke’s case, it is both. Her memoir is a story of love, loss, and the search for home, and a reminder that life is, ultimately, delicious.