No – before you ask – this is not simply a checklist of three meals per day for 365 days. It’s debatable whether Stanley Tucci is better known now as an actor or a gourmand. Or, indeed, as a writer. This is his third book and is a unique memoir, offering insights into the world of film and stage, restaurants worldwide, home cooking and family life in his adopted home of London.
The memoir begins – quite fittingly for this Italian-American – on a film set in Rome, where some restaurants are familiar, and others are yet to be explored. The one place Tucci warns not to eat is from the catering on set. To combat disappointment, Tucci makes his own tomato-based sauce as soon as he arrives at his accommodation. He claims his repertoire is small, but he cooks those dishes well. Tucci understands that he’s privileged, and vows to remain humble. He had the good grace to be embarrassed when juxtaposing being guest of honour at a charity event for food banks, to then leaving to enjoy a sumptuous and extensive meal at a Greek restaurant.
Tucci’s writing is quaintly old fashioned, which makes the expletive with which he described the ‘meal’ at a film-related dinner all the more emphatic. He stopped eating after one mouthful, but his wife, Felicity, became very ill. He is plainly proud of his family, both with his older children from his first marriage, and with his London family. He writes of the death of his first wife, Kate, as a love remembered and still nurtured.
Tucci is an urbane gentleman – a throwback to a kinder time – and this memoir is a mouthwatering degustation meal. Bon appetit.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stanley Tucci began his acting career on Broadway debut in 1982, and then made his film debut in Prizzi’s Honor (1985).
In 2009, Tucci received his first Academy Award nomination for his turn as a child murderer in The Lovely Bones (2009). He also received a BAFTA nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for the same role. Other than The Lovely Bones (based on the book of the same name), Tucci has had supporting roles in Lucky Number Slevin (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Captain America: The First Avenger.
He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in TV movie Winchell, an Emmy for a guest turn on Monk, and a Golden Globe for his role in Conspiracy.
Tucci has three children with Kate Tucci, who passed away in 2009. Tucci married Felicity Blunt in August 2012.
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