When Tembi Locke wrote her bestseller From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, she had one overarching idea in mind: “No matter where we are on the planet, we all carry the same essential things in our hearts.”

Locke reflects on From Scratch in this featurette alongside the other creators of the upcoming limited series adapted from her book. From Scratch debuts on Netflix Oct. 21.

Locke is an executive producer of the show along with her sister, Attica Locke, who swiftly sets the scene: “A young, Black woman in her 20s studies abroad in Italy for a semester only to fall in love very unexpectedly with an Italian chef.”

Zoe Saldaña, who is an executive producer of the series as well, stars as Amy Wheeler, the fictionalized version of Tembi Locke. Eugenio Mastrandrea brings the heat in and out of the kitchen as Lino Ortolano.

“Tembi deserves her story to be told with all heart and all commitment,” Saldaña emphasizes. “She just has this beautiful ability to always see the half-fullness of every situation and that was very captivating for me.”

Amy and Lino’s love story begins with a quintessential meet-cute moment when they literally bump into each other one day in Florence. Bike rides and flea market excursions follow, but their romance truly blossoms when Lino offers to cook for Amy in his restaurant. 

“Food is really a love language throughout the series,” Tembi Locke says of From Scratch’s feasts for the eyes. “We wanted the food to evolve and expand and contract.” Cooking is how Lino expresses himself, while also staying connected to his Sicilian culture. The same sort of bond ties Amy to her Texan roots, especially her affinity for grits ––or, as Lino calls the dish, polenta.

As Amy and Lino build a life together, they bridge their two families and cultures, “breaking down the walls of what it means to be a family,” in the words of Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Amy’s sister Zora. She sees the show’s characters “removing the cultural boundaries that we tend to put up because we do not speak the same language, because we do not make the same food.”

From Scratch also serves as an ode to the strength and resilience necessary to rewrite the stories that we script for our lives. “We really in life, I feel, are destined to remake our lives at least once if not many, many times. I think all of us will have our From Scratch moments,” Tembi Locke muses. 

Even if Lino and Amy’s families may have different ideas about what belongs on the table for Thanksgiving dinner, Keith David, who plays Amy’s father Hershel, recognizes that their love is what sees them through every struggle. “The bottom-most line is, no matter what happens, I love you.”

Take it from Mastrandrea: “It’s a big love story and it’s a big life story.”

Get a taste of everything on life’s menu when From Scratch premieres Oct. 21. In the meantime, whet your appetite with the featurette above.