The Melting Pot -
finding your roots

Three celebrity chefs who cook the food of their ancestors discover family members who have shaped their lives - and America's cuisine. Tom Colicchio of "Top Chef" learns the hardships his family endured (famine, bandits) living in a tiny town in Northern Italy and celebrates the courage of his original immigrant ancestor, a man who crossed the Atlantic many times to bring the Colicchios to the United States; Ming Tsai, the child of immigrants who fled Mao's Cultural Revolution, was raised to believe that his that his family's Chinese past was obliterated by the Communists - instead, he finds that his roots can be traced back more than 2,000 years, yielding a large family tree; and Aaron Sanchez discovers that his family's treasured Mexican roots include people who were Spaniards, Africans and Native Americans.

Episode Duration: 56 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 205

About Finding Your Roots:

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

is the 12th and latest series from the renowned cultural critic and Harvard scholar.

In this 10-part series, Professor Gates continues the quest he begun in African American Lives 1 and 2 and Faces of America delving into the genealogy and genetics of an all new group of famous Americans.

The series combines history and science in a fascinating exploration of race, family, and identity in today's America.

Each hour features a different pair of celebrity guests, who are bound together by an intimate, sometimes hidden link, whether it be as old friends, through long-lost relatives, or even through a common ancestral past.

Visit the Finding Your Roots web site

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