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

Tembekile “Tembi” Locke (b. 1970), is an African American actress and the author and narrator of From Scratch. Born to activist parents in Houston, Texas, Tembi moved to Middletown, Connecticut to study Art History at Wesleyan University after high school. In 1990, when Tembi was 20 years old, she enrolled in a study-abroad program in Florence, Italy to learn Italian and fulfill her program’s language requirement. Tembi’s chosen profession and college major attest to her creative drive, while her willingness to live in a foreign country speaks to her curiosity and sense of adventure.

It was during Tembi’s semester abroad that she met Saro, a talented Sicilian chef at the trendy Acqua al 2. Tembi was instantly drawn to Saro, but she refused his overtures for weeks, preferring aloof men to those who wore their hearts on their sleeves, as Saro did. A self-professed foodie with “the culinary soul of an Italian” (2), Tembi fell in love with Saro as she dined at Acqua al 2 alongside two American friends.

Tembi’s family history made her wary of Saro’s advances. Her parents’ separation when she was seven years old and their divorce a year later left her feeling sad and unmoored. Tembi’s mother remarried when she was nine, only to divorce again a decade later, while her father remarried when she was 12.