Logline

 Issa and her best friend, Tartufo the pig, travel to different countries - exploring food, cultures and languages and finding ingredients to help make a dish for a VIP guest at Issa's Chef Mom’s restaurant.

Concept / Synopsis

Issa, a young girl, spends her afternoons after school at her Mom's, Chef Layla’s, restaurant behind the United Nations in global New York City.  She spends most of her time in the Chef’s office, reading cookbooks, learning about food and culture and dreaming up stories.

Each day, someone calls about a VIP foreign dignitary visiting the restaurant that evening for dinner and requesting a dish specific to his/her home country.  Chef Layla puts her Sous Chef, Pierre, in charge of making the dish, and each day, he’s missing certain ingredients. 

Issa is always listening, and when she hears the dish and the first ingredient the cook is missing, she instantly knows how to help and where to go to find it.  She crawls under the “pass” (in a restaurant, the plating area) and is suddenly transformed into an adventurer.  She flies a chopper with her best friend, Tartufo the pig, who helps her “root” out all of the ingredients. 

Issa and Tartufo fly to the first international city to find the first ingredient and, there, they get the clue for where to go for the second ingredient – the clues generally reflect geography, music, food or culture.  All in, they visit 3 cities and always encounters a bit of difficulty between the 2nd and 3rd city.  At this point, Maha, the crow, points them in the right direction, directs them away from an ambush, or helps them escape the weather.

When Issa returns to the restaurant, emerging from underneath the pass, she helps Pierre whip up the dish, standing on a stool next to him, and her Chef Mom is none the wiser.