Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. The corn on the cob was boiled for about six minutes, placed on a large platter, and brought steaming hot to the table.

Taste: My Life Through Food (Audio Download): Stanley Tucci

He lovingly describes how when he was growing up, his mother spent most of her waking time in the kitchen, which she does to this day.

Ones life is never all peaches and cream and though his seems at time magical, the food he's eaten, the places he's been and the friends he has made, there is plenty of bad with the good. 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. I sound authoritative, but to be truthful I hadn’t heard of these parcels of deliciousness – bring me a crate of them and I’ll show you what a good appetite looks like – until the other day.

Taste, My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Booktopia Taste, My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Booktopia

Yes, there is a print version of this wonderful story, but I absolutely loved the audio version read by Tucci himself. In this new world, they would birth new generations who had options available to them never thought possible in the poor and corrupt towns of Southern Italy. This is evident through the inconsistencies of the writing as “Taste” toggles back-and-forth with two different writing styles that is hard to ignore.Why, she may think wildly, will he not treat me to spaghetti con le zucchine alla Nerano at La Scoglio on the Amalfi coast? Uncles on mandolin or piano sang old Italian folk songs or Italian versions of bygone American ditties, like “Darktown Strutters’ Ball. It was down there, on an old yellow and green enamel-topped table, that she would make her light-as-a-feather, soft-as-a-baby’s-bottom pizza dough. They created Italian enclaves all over the country by sending for family and friends once work had been secured. Along one wall sat a long workbench with ageing hand tools and dozens of glass jars filled with screws, nails, washers, nuts, and bolts hanging from their lids, which were nailed to the underside of a wooden shelf.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci Book Review of Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

Not sure why I was turned off at the part where his father moved his family to Italy so that the father could study art.Rome is another destination and Tucci explains what a true Carbonara is, its history and where to find “the best carbonara in a city of Carbonaras. Especially poignant is the last part of the book where Stanley Tucci describes his (successful) battle with cancer of the tongue, and his gratitude to the doctors, to his many friends, and most of all to his loving family for helping and supporting him through the terrible ordeal. Taste” is a quick-read and suggested heartily for all Tucci fans but don’t expect to truly dive into the man’s diary and soul.

Taste: My Life Through Food - Stanley Tucci - Google Books Taste: My Life Through Food - Stanley Tucci - Google Books

when my parents are no longer alive, I will always be able to put their teachings and all the love they gave me into a bowl and present it to someone who sadly will never have had the good fortune of knowing them. And now I’m giving this book four stars because personally, I love the man: lui è un grande dandy ~ in cucina lo è handy ~ mi fa sentire randy… Ha-Cha-Cha-Chaaaaa. A scrambled egg, fried potato, and sautéed sweet green pepper sandwich on two slices of Italian bread or in a “wedge” or a “hero,” which is a long loaf of Italian bread sliced horizontally and filled with whatever you choose to fill it with.The author of two cookbooks, he is the presenter of an Emmy award-winning series in which he travels around Italy flirting madly with women who make calzone, and in lockdown became a viral sensation when his wife filmed him making a negroni.