Sandra now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in North Carolina. She is still working and loves it. She and Marika discuss some Italian expressions about the value of work and about how their friendship has lasted all these years.

The story of Sandra continues, a restaurateur in Miami, chosen to cook at a White House event for Barack Obama. Between initial disbelief and rigorous security checks, the experience becomes a source of great pride for her. The story also highlights the value of friendship and the importance of reinventing oneself in life.

The story of Sandra continues, a Tuscan chef who emigrated to the United States, who established herself in Miami with authentic Tuscan cuisine. Thanks to her continuous ties with Italy, she keeps her roots alive, even cooking for Barack Obama.

During an important evening at the Washington, D.C. restaurant where Sandra was the dining room manager, the usual chef didn't show, and Sandra found herself having to manage the kitchen as well. She had no experience there, and so it was somewhat of a disaster. The episode pushed her to learn, however: Thanks to the help of an expert cook, she began an apprenticeship, acquired skills, and started building a career bringing Italian cuisine to the United States.

Sandra tells about her initial difficulties in the United States and how, realizing she wouldn't get very far without knowing English, she learned it on her own. Starting from a humble job in the restaurant industry, she quickly grew professionally.

Sandra tells about her immigration experience to the United States in 1979. At first, without knowing English well and without technology, she faces many difficulties in daily life and in finding work. Starting from a simple job as a coat check attendant in a restaurant, she slowly begins a new life that would later lead her to become a chef.

Sandra was born in the province of Pisa and tells the story of her personal transformation. She begins at the beginning, when she was a young girl growing up in Cascina, a town near Pisa. But she wasn't happy and felt like a fish out of water.

There is an amazing variety of fresh and dried pasta shapes and sizes in Italy, referred to as formati (shapes and sizes). Their names have to do with their surface (smooth, rough, grooved), their size, expressed with a suffix, such as -one, -etto, -ino, etc, and/or what they resemble. Marika makes some sense of the vast assortment of pasta found in Italian supermarkets.

There are different kinds of flour used to make pasta. "Flour" is a generic term but it's not always accurate. Marika explains it all.

Marika divides the types of pasta into different categories and explains their characteristics, ranging from ingredients to shelf life, to cooking time, and consistency.

Who doesn't love pasta? Marika talks about this extremely popular Italian food: the history, where it's produced, and how to cook it.

One reason mozzarella di bufala (buffalo mozzarella) is so delicious is because the animals are treated with utmost respect. They are milked when they are physiologically ready!

Donato Brenca has been making cheese for about 20 years, and although he strives to make better and better cheese, he sticks to the same method he has always employed.

To make pasta, only 2 ingredients are strictly necessary: semola (durum wheat flour) and water. But atmospheric conditions make all the difference.

Italy is known for its pasta. The Zampino family was able to give new life to an old flour mill from the sixteen hundreds and turn it into a productive plant where they produce pasta keeping to traditional methods.