Giovanni Ballarini talks about what the kitchens of Italian restaurants were like in the fifties and sixties. To make sense of how he describes them, see Yabla lesson Parole Alterate - Modifying Words to Create New Ones, as well as video lesson Marika spiega: Parole alterate. Gianni Mura talks about some of the trends found on restaurant menus today.

Marchesi had plenty of artist friends, and that meant late nights, while having a restaurant meant getting up at the crack of dawn to go to the market. How did he do it?

Artist Nanda Vigo, a friend of Gualtiero Marchesi's, tells us what it was like to be an artist back in those days, and how Marchesi was involved.

Massimo Montanari, an expert in historical food studies, discusses the role of women in the development of regional cooking.

In Italian families, the role of women has always been one of fundamental importance. Women were able to create wonderful meals with humble ingredients, but as talented as they might have been, their place was in the home, running the family, not travelling abroad learning haute cuisine.

Marchesi talks about how much he learned from just being around great chefs who happened to be relatives, but also how much he learned from books. There are also some interesting opinions about why most great chefs are male!

Milan, as it became an important center for gastronomy and publishing, relinquished, at the same time, part of its regional identity.

Various experts talk about their memories of Milan back in the fifties: Sunday morning rituals of getting pastries from the "best," bars, eating big meals twice a day, the cathedral square with its tram and neon lights, and so forth.

Italian cuisine in the fifties reflected both the economic prospering, and the cultural growth of a population that had also begun opening up to new horizons through the birth of tourism.

Being a man of culture as well as an expert chef, Gualtiero Marchesi has found himself being inspired by artists. He talks of dripping food onto a platter, much as Jackson Pollock would drip paint onto a canvas.

Gualtiero Marchesi describes both his old and the new versions of Pollo Kiev (Chicken Kiev). Relatively simple and tasty, especially if you like butter!

When does an artist become an artist? Join Gualtiero Marchesi in his musings on art and the art of cooking in this new chapter.

In this segment, cooking is seen as an art form, starting with a white plate as the artist's canvas...

Some artists, including Gualtiero Marchesi, talk about the past: horse-drawn carts for delivering produce, artists exchanging news from abroad before the widespread use of telephones, tripe for breakfast, still-life paintings reflecting the food of the times and its preparation. There's even talk of the desire to eat paintings! Buon appetito!

Gualtiero Marchesi talks about the chef as an artist, and how different chefs can be recognized by their distinctive artistic styles. In defending the choice of simple, genuine food, he goes on to talk about the art of slicing, and how it used to be "performed" right in the dining room.