Bryan Flynn, a passionate New York chef, travels to rural Italy to learn the secret of a unique recipe that belongs to chef Luigi Pompardino, an eccentric old and wise Italian with a peculiar sense of humor - he loves to poison those chefs that are not true to their art. Bryan is obsessed with Pompardino’s recipe and he has to prove himself to the old man who continually tests Bryan’s patience. Little does Bryan know that love will also sit at his table when he meets Pompardino’s agent and lawyer, Simona, a beautiful village girl in her late twenties who aspires to be a politician in Rome, and who is not at all interested in gastronomy.