Anna and Marika are having lunch in the Trastevere quarter of Rome. Join them as they order traditional Roman pasta dishes and talk about Italian eating habits.

One thing that has made Gualtiero Marchesi become such a great in modern Italian cuisine has been his ability to create new dishes by rearranging, in an innovative way, traditional dishes of every region of Italy, each different in taste and quality.

We learn how and when rice was introduced into Italy. It first appeared in the fourteen hundreds, brought to Lombardy from Spain; and to Sicily from the Arabic world.

The video weaves together Marchesi recounting a story about his first love when he was twelve, and a critic discussing Artusi and Marchesi's debt to popular cuisine.

Water, earth, fish, animals, rice: these were the fundamental elements of Italian cuisine in the pre-war and war years, elements that profoundly influenced the culinary creations of one of the most famous chefs in Italy, Gualtiero Marchesi.

Pre-war and wartime cooking, when fuel for cooking was in short supply, made raw recipes come to the fore.

Gualtiero Marchesi recalls the early years of his friendship with Aldo Calvi, when the would hunt and fish together along the Po.

Giovanna, a resident of Campania, explains how tomato puree is made, and then preserved in glass jars.

Gualtiero Marchesi recalls his childhood, living along the banks of the River Po. His memories are as diverse as milking cows and seeing German bombers taking out bridges.

Adriano finishes showing us how to make "spaghetti alla carbonara." Ingredients for 4 servings: 500 grams of pasta, 300 grams of bacon cubes, 4 eggs, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.

Marika shows us the various pots and pans, plates and silverware used every day in Italian kitchens, dining rooms and restaurants.

Pasta alla carbonara is a characteristic dish from Lazio, and more specifically, from Rome. It's made with "humble" ingredients but that doesn't prevent it from being wonderfully tasty, and a favorite with pasta lovers everywhere. This is the Adriano's own version.

Marika takes us through the vegetables used in Italian cooking. Buon appetito!

Marika names some of the delicious fruits available in Italy. In general the fruits themselves are feminine, while the plants on which they grow take the masculine form.

Our famous chef talks about the town where he spent much of his childhood, San Zenone al Po, where two rivers meet, and where flooding has always been part of life.