This is a story recap of the Netflix series From Scratch season 1 and contains spoilers — we detail what happened.
From Scratch is based on the New York Times best-selling memoir by Tembi Locke. The Zoe Saldana vehicle has flaws, but this romantic dramedy hits all the sweet spots life offers. It is a funny, romantic, happy, fearful, angry, surprising, and tragic series, just like life itself.
Story Recap – what happened in From Scratch season 1?
Episode 1 – “First Tastes”
Amy (Zoey Saldana) takes time off from law school to study art in Florence, Italy, for six weeks. There, she is advised to hang out with the locals and not visit Americans to get a rich flavor in one of the most famous cities in the world. Also, ignore the guidebooks and even take a lover. From there, she dates Giancarlo but gets to know the charming Lino, a talented chef with an eternal five o’clock shadow, a good heart, and funny shoes. The episode ends with Amy choosing Lino as they share a passionate embrace under a warm nighttime rainstorm outside her apartment building.
Episode 2 – “Carme e Ossa”
Amy moved back to Los Angeles and pursued a career in the art world, to her parent’s chagrin. Lino visits, and they stay in her sister Zora’s house. Lino has trouble acclimating. He cannot find a chef job, and when he makes a traditional Sicilian dinner for Thanksgiving, Amy’s family ignores his dishes and eat their own. Amy finds him a sports bar that has a satellite for European soccer matches and friends with similar interests. While dancing in the parking lot, Amy gets on one knee and proposes to him. The link says yes.
Episode 3 – “A Villa, A Broom, and a Cake”
Amy and Lino travel to Florence to plan their wedding. Unfortunately, Lino shamed his father by hitting the family business and planning on marrying an American woman. He refuses to attend his son’s wedding and will not allow his wife or daughter to attend. On their honeymoon, they visit Lino’s hometown, where Amy arranges for his mother and sister to see him.
Episode 4 – “Bitter Almonds”
Amy is offered a promotion at her job because of her talent for client relationships. However, she feels like she has never created any art since coming to the land of Angels, which was rather an intention. She is offered a job on the board of Watts Towers Arts Center. She takes the latter, even though it has less money and prestige. Lino takes his own risk, taking over the restaurant he used to work at with a “pop-up” restaurant that’s a hit. However, Lino has common knee pain that most chefs have, but Amy notes it’s warm or hot to the touch. He is given a referral to an orthopedist who at first thinks it’s a Baker’s cyst. They, however, become alarmed by the scans. Lino is referred to an oncologist who tells them he has a rare soft tissue cancer called leiomyosarcoma.
Episode 5 – “Bread and Brine”
During Lino’s treatment, he goes through chemotherapy and signs up for a drug trial, not knowing if he will be given the “wonder drug” or the “placebo.” Also, both families come together, including Lino’s father. As they celebrate the end of his drug trial, he is told that he would feel nauseous by now, so he probably was given the sugar pill. Lino mends fences with his father, and the families have grown closer together. The final scenes show Amy waking later and hearing Lino being sick in the bathroom. They both concluded that he must have been given the cancer-fighting medication.
Episode 6 – “Heirlooms”
The episode starts with one life being taken away and another being gifted. Lino’s father passed away in Sicily, suffering a heart attack in the fields. However, both Amy and Lino have decided to adopt. They have to leave Zora’s wedding as a UCLA college student has given birth and is ready to approve the couple as foster parents. Her name is Idalia.
Episode 7 – “Between the Fire and the Pan”
Years have passed, and now Lino’s cancer is back, spreading to his lungs. He undergoes aggressive chemotherapy but begins to experience liver failure. The bills pile up, and doctors will not give Amy a straight answer. Finally, a doctor specializing in palliative care breaks the news to them both that Lino is dying and they cannot cure his cancer. Lino chooses to spend his last days at home, where he passes away, and Amy looks back at the day they kissed in the rain. Amy fell asleep, and Lino waited hours under those weeping clouds waiting for her.
Episode 8 – “Aftertastes”
Lino’s last wishes are to take his ashes to his home in Sicily. Lino’s mother puts the land and the house in Amy’s name so it can be passed onto her granddaughter. They have the procession, and Amy agrees to return to Sicily annually. Amy keeps a gold locket around her neck with a small number of Lino’s ashes. She opens it up and lovingly blows the last of her beloved husband onto the farmland where Lino grew up.
That’s the full story recap of what happened in From Scratch season 1. What are your thoughts on the story? Please comment below.
