''From Scratch'' is an American

romance drama Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

created by

Attica Locke Attica Locke (born 1974 in Houston, Texas) is an American fiction author and writer/producer for television and film. Career A 1995 graduate of Northwestern University School of Communication, Locke was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Featu ...

and

Tembi Locke Tembekile "Tembi" Locke is an American actress who has appeared in television shows and film. She is best known as Dr. Grace Monroe on Syfy's series ''Eureka'' and as Dr. Diana Davis in ''Sliders''. Locke is also the author of the bestselling mem ...

for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. Inspired by Tembi Locke's memoir of the same name, it stars

Zoe Saldaña Zoë Yadira Saldaña-Perego (née Saldaña Nazario; born June 19, 1978) is an American actress widely known for her work in science fiction franchises, she has appeared in three of the five highest-grossing films of all time (''Avatar'', '' Av ...

and Eugenio Mastrandrea. Its eight episodes premiered on October 21, 2022. Attica Locke was series showrunner.

Cast and characters

Main

as Amy * Eugenio Mastrandrea as Lino *

Danielle Deadwyler Danielle Deadwyler (born May 3, 1982) is an American actress. She began her career appearing on Atlanta stage, notably the 2009 production of ''For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, For Colored Girls'', and mad ...

as Zora * Judith Scott as Maxine *

Kellita Smith Kellita Smith (born January 15, 1969) is an American actress, model and comedian. She is best known for her role as Wanda McCullough, Bernie Mac's wife on the FOX sitcom ''The Bernie Mac Show''. Life and career Born in Chicago, Illinois, She ...

as Lynn *

Lucia Sardo Lucia Sardo (born 13 December 1952) is an Italian actress. Life and career Born Aurora Sardo in Francofonte, Syracuse, Sardo formed at the Teatro di Ventura under Ferruccio Merisi. She made her film debut in the 1992 Aurelio Grimaldi's dra ...

as Filomena * Paride Benassai as Giacomo * Roberta Rigano as Biagia *

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

as Hershel

Recurring

* Lorenzo Pozzan as Filippo * Peter Mendoza as Andreas * Jonathan D. King as Silvio * Terrell Carter as Ken * Saad Siddiqui as Dr. Atluri * Rodney Gardiner as Preston *

Jonathan Del Arco Jonathan Del Arco (born March 7, 1966) is an Uruguayan American actor and gay rights and political activist. He is best known for his role as Hugh the Borg in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and '' Star Trek: Picard'', and for his series r ...

as David

Guest

Giacomo Gianniotti Giacomo Keaton Gianniotti (born 19 June 1989) is an Italian-Canadian film and television actor. He studied theater at Humber College and made his acting debut in the Italian television series ''Medicina Generale'' in 2010. He went on to play rec ...

as Giancarlo Caldesi *

Medalion Rahimi Medalion Rahimi (born July 15, 1992) is an American actress of Iranian descent. She is known for playing Princess Isabella on the 2017 ABC Shonda Rhimes Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television screenwriter, pro ...

as Laila Mahdi * Elizabeth Anweis as Chloe Lim *

Kassandra Clementi Kassandra Carolyn Clementi (born 10 October 1990) is an Australian actress. She is known for her role as Maddy Osborne on the Seven Network soap opera '' Home and Away'', a role she played for over three years before leaving in May 2016. Earl ...

as Caroline * Ferdinando Gattuccio as Italian notary * Claudia Gerini as art teacher

Episodes

Production

Development

The series was announced on November 7, 2019.

was set to star and executive-produce. The series was created by and executive-produced by

and

. Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, Richard Abate, Jermaine Johnson and Will Rowbotham were also executive producers. Nzingha Stewart, Guy Louthan, Emily Ferenbach, Cisely Saldaña, and Mariel Saldaña were its producers.

Casting

Alongside the series announcement,

was cast. In April 2021, Eugenio Mastrandrea,

, Judith Scott,

, Paride Benassai, and Roberta Rigano were set to star. One month later, Terrell Carter,

, Peter Mendoza, Lorenzo Pozzan, and Jonathan D. King were added as recurring.

, Elizabeth Anweis,

, and Rodney Gardiner were set as guest stars. In July 2021, Saad Siddiqui joined the cast as a recurring character.

Filming

Filming began in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on April 5, 2021, and moved to

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in July. Production ended on August 7, 2021 in Cefalù,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 94% approval rating with an average rating of 6.6/10, based on 12 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "By turns a buoyant and wistful romance, ''From Scratch'' is an emotionally resonant miniseries that benefits from its Italian scenery and

's considerable dramatic chops."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Zoe Saldana was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special at the 54th

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present), state=collapsed 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings 2020s American drama television miniseries English-language Netflix original programming Television shows based on non-fiction books Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television shows filmed in Italy Television shows set in Florence Television shows set in Sicily