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!

Gualtiero Marchesi is an artist, using food to express his creativity. He's also headstrong, and doesn't easily accept other people's ideas. Step by step, he shows us how to make his famous open ravioli, beautiful to look at, and wonderful to taste!

The great chef, Gualtiero Marchesi, invites us to keep on dreaming, and to believe in our dreams. He takes us into his own dream, which has to do with cuisine as art. Consequently, the way in which food is presented takes on special importance.

Gualtiero's mind was working on his new cuisine, creating new dishes, but first he had to find a suitable place for a restaurant. Not an easy task!

After lots of searching, Gualtiero Marchesi finally finds a place that could work as the restaurant of his dreams.

Marchesi recounts how he transformed some dark basement rooms in Milan into a modern style restaurant that eventually made history.

Gualtiero's friends continue telling the story of the 1970s, when he finally opened his restaurant, on the via Bonvesin de la Riva in Milan. It was rough.

The sixties and seventies were magical years for Milan. Fashion design started undergoing important changes, and people started talking about food!

Fashion designer Chiara Boni talks about Milan in the seventies. Gualtiero Marchesi talks about combining tradition with innovation in both his art and his kitchen. Gastronomer Eugenio Medagliani talks about how at the beginning, people understood very little about this "nouvelle cuisine."

Gualtiero put some very fancy lamps in his new restaurant, but it stayed almost empty for a good while. He didn't give up, nor did he stoop to using the techniques a New York restaurant used when it opened.

Marchesi completely upsets the traditional concepts of cooking, and many think he's just too weird in his combinations and cooking times.

Although Marchesi earned his first Michelin star quite early in the game, he never lost his enthusiasm for creating new dishes, for experimenting.

Gualtiero Marchesi's restaurant was more akin to an art exhibit, than a place where you can get something to eat.

Marchesi's friends and clients talk about Milan in the 1980s and how the fashion business helped it become such a cosmopolitan city. Reference is made to Florence's "Sala Bianca," [White Hall] in the Pitti Palace, where fashion shows took place before Milan became synonymous with high fashion.

Marchesi talks about how important his travels in Europe and in Asia had been in enriching his menu, and confirming the path he was following.