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.

Into the fifties, many Italians would stop at trucker restaurants, knowing they'd eat huge portions for little money. With prosperity, Italians began to search for authentic and higher quality foods. One of Marchesi's signature dishes is the open tortello, a deconstructed filled pasta.

After the war, when eating had to do with survival, tastes started to change and to branch out towards different regions. Now, once again cucina tipica (traditional local cooking) or prodotti tipici (local products) have practically become magic words.

"Starvation gastronomy " describes the humble origins of Italian cuisine. Inventing recipes based on whatever was available in the territory resulted in regional dishes that have become famous today.

"Food is culture." What do we mean by this? Cultural historian, Massimo Montanari, and world-famous chef, Gualtiero Marchesi share their views.

As a fitting end to this journey into Italian gastronomy, Gualtiero Marchesi shares with us the recipe for one of his most special risottos, using his own innovative techniques while keeping with tradition.

We open a new chapter in L’arte della cucina (the Art of Cooking). Here the focus is on Milan, and the fruit and vegetable market where it all starts.

Gualtiero Marchesi talks about the hotel/restaurant his parents opened in Milan. He describes what it was like back in the Fifties.

Our chef tells how his passion for cooking was born, and what books he used as examples.

Gualtiero Marchesi has been described as growing up in a pot. While training under the eye of his mother, he began to specialize in tavola calda e fredda (hot and cold food service) which, usually connected with a bar, offers quality ready-to-eat dishes. La Cucina Italiana (Italian Cooking) is a periodical that's been on newsstands since 1929. Paola Ricas, who was an editor there, shares a special moment in its history.

Gualtiero Marchesi tells us a bit about when he discovered "haute cuisine" in a famous hotel school in Switzerland.

Gualtiero Marchesi, together with his friend Medagliani, figured out how to invent new kinds of pots and pans to make the most of his new recipes.

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.