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."