Taste: My Life Through Food

Who is the author? Stanley Tucci is an Italian-American actor, director, cookbook author, writer, and self-declared food lover. When he’s not gracing our screen in movies like The Devil Wears Prada or Julie & Julia, he can be found exploring the varied landscape and cuisine of Italy in his latest award-winning television venture, Searching for Italy.

What’s it about? You are probably already aware of Stanley Tucci’s impressive acting accolades and corresponding roles in blockbuster films. But behind the Hollywood glamour is a man who grew up in a typical Italian American family in Westchester, New York, in which food was central to family life. Having shared many of his life’s most formative recipes in his cookbooks The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, in Taste, his new food-based memoir, Stanley dishes out the stories behind the recipes.

Delving into memories of his childhood and revisiting cherished times with friends and family in his own words, Stanley explores how food has often been a meaningful centre-point of these interactions. Alongside the likes of anecdotes about Meryl Streep and tales of his courtship of his wife, Felicity Blunt, he includes a number of unmissable recipes, from the Negroni that became an internet sensation, to his family’s cherished tomato sauce. The resulting book is a reminder of how food is so often a portal to our past, a connection to our loved ones, and almost always present at life’s most precious moments.

Recipes we love: Timpano, Simple Chicken Stock, A Christmas Cocktail, Pizzoccheri.

Perfect for: Tucci fans interested in unearthing the man behind the legend and the stories behind the recipes.