For ‘From Scratch’ author Tembi Locke, food is a way for her to ‘express (her) grief’

For Tembi Locke, life is a feast.

First a public figure as an actor, Locke has also become prominent for her bestselling memoir “From Scratch,” first published in 2019 as a Reese’s Book Club Pick and then turned in a 2022 Netflix show starring Zoe Saldana.

Locke detailed her love story with Saro Gullo, a Sicilian chef she met while studying abroad in Florence, and the challenges they faced: First, from his family not accepting his marriage to Locke, a Black American; then, from his cancer diagnosis. Saro died of cancer in 2012 when their daughter Zoela was in elementary school.

Since “From Scratch’s” publication, Locke’s career has continued to evolve along lines of grief, travel, food and Italy — she's fluent in Italian and returns often to visit in-laws in Sicily.

The latest iteration of that is a new season of her podcast “Lifted,” out Jan. 25, which spotlights eight different women innovators in the food world, featuring food writers, chefs, winemakers and restaurant owners.

Guests include the vineyard-owning McBride sisters, former editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit Dawn Davis and pastry chef Candace Nelson, among others.

“Season Two is really pulling at the threads ‘From Scratch,’” Locke says. “For whatever reason, we’ve thought of the restaurant business as a male-dominated space. But women are changing everything.”

She points out the award-winning show “The Bear” as an example of how that’s translating to pop culture, with Ayo Edibiri’s character taking charge of the restaurant's culinary direction. “Women are not only holding their weight, but holding the vision,” she says.

While speaking to chefs, Locke says she felt like she was “in conversation with a version of her husband.”

“The young version of Saro, who was desiring to be a chef and curious about how he was going to do it. The chef who was cooking beside me, and I had the privilege of eating at his table. I felt like it pulled me closer to our story and that part of our life, and that felt really good,” she says.

Locke is a food innovator herself and runs the website The Kitchen Widow, which explores the way food nourishes the soul following loss, in addition to the body.

As with her guests on the show, her relationship with food has changed. As a girl, it was “jet fuel” that got her through school, but she got “pleasure and comfort” from the “shared experience of family gatherings,” which felt “containing, loving and sustaining.”

Marrying a chef, she says, took food “to a whole new level.”

“Then I began to look at food as a way to express one’s heart, to express one’s desires, one’s creativity, to ask questions of oneself — even if you’re just seeking to prepare a dish you’ve never done before. You struggle with it. You have to lean into the beginner’s mind and be willing to fail,” she says.

After Gullo died, food became urgent. “It became a way for me to express my grief, explore my grief, make peace with my grief and inspire me to go forward,” she says.

It’s also become a way for her to bond with her daughter, who is now in college. During her first semester, Locke and Zoela would exchange TikTok recipes and pictures of what they were eating. “Even though we’re not eating together, we’re still sharing that experience,” she says.

Her love affair with Italian food, which she detailed in “From Scratch” continues. She views it as a “slowed down invitation to be together, be at ease” that cultivates a “kind of mindfulness.”

Her next season will either be about travel or caregiving, the next iteration of a career guided by curiosity.

As for what she would tell her younger self setting out to be an actor, completely unaware of her life’s twists and turns, she says, “I would thank her. I was a scrapbooker back in the day, collaging all of my interests in one space. That is the of who seed I am today. Then I followed the path. I think my younger self wasn’t really brave enough yet to do that. I couldn’t have imagined a world in which I could do that — and so I feel very blessed that as those opportunities presented themselves, I just listened. I followed the heart beat, and I followed the pulse. That’s gotten me here.”Since our interview, Locke also announced she and her sister, Attica, are co-producing an adaptation of one of Attica Locke’s novels, “Bluebird, Bluebird.”

“I call it truly just like following passion. My curiosity. My purity of purpose,” she says.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com