Stanley Tucci, the bespeckled American actor with his signature bald head, is never far from the news, be it for his latest acting role or for sharing his favourite cocktail recipes on Instagram.
Last Sunday he made headlines for another reason: he trumped the British royals at the Emmys.
His food and travel series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, pipped the favourite — Oprah Winfrey’s now infamous tell-all interview with Prince Harry and Meghan — to the post to win best Hosted Nonfiction Series Or Special.
The series sees the affable actor take viewers on a gastronomic tour of Italy as he explores his passion — someone called it a “public obsession” — for the food of his heritage. (Though he grew up in New York, both the actor’s parents were Italian).
Beyond hosting this show, I discovered that Tucci is also the author of three cookbooks. The latest, Taste: My Life through Food, is about to be released in the US.
It promises to be a collection of Tucci’s best-loved recipes and will include some of the on-screen favourites featured in the 2009 movie Julie & Julia, where he played the husband of Julia Child, the famous cookbook author credited with putting Mediterranean food on American tables.
My hope is that Tucci shares the recipe for the particularly delicious-looking timpano — a pasta pie filled with tasty titbits like meatballs, salami, peas and egg — featured in the Big Night, a wonderful movie in which he stars. Apparently all the recipes in this 1996 cult classic came from the Tucci family collection.
Taste: My Life through Food (Gallery Books, R475) will be available locally from Exclusive Books in November.
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