Martha is the chef who fusses and obsesses over each dish before it leaves the kitchen. The demands of her job and her natural shyness keep her from meeting new people. When her sister suddenly dies, Martha adopts Lina, her eight-year-old niece, completely changing both lives. Martha gets unexpected help from Mario, Martha's hunky new sous chef, who is not only a whiz on the chopping block but knows sundry magic tricks and jokes to keep Lina's spirits afloat. Just as Martha starts to grow attached to the girl, Lina's erratic father shows up demanding that he take her back to Italy with him.

MPAA rating: PG; for thematic material and mild language.

German dialogue, English subtitles.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 2001.

Director of photography, Michael Bertl ; editor, Mona Bräuer ; original music, David Darling ... [et al.] ; costume designer, Bettina Helmi ; production designer, Thomas Freudenthal.

Martina Gedeck, Maxime Foerste, August Zirner, Ulrich Thomsen, Sibylle Canonica, Katja Studt, Idil Üner, Sergio Castellitto.

DVD format, Dolby surround stereo., digital video disc, Region 1 encoding.