WDuring the lockdown, actor Stanley Tucci, whose face is known to many but fewer, gained a second notoriety as perhaps the sexiest guy alive. Tucci uploaded a video to Instagram where he could be seen mixing a (slightly questionable) Negroni for his wife Felicity. This rather unspectacular video led to almost ecstatic reactions. What happened?
Yes, it was the lockdown and any notion of drinks, of going out, tempting. And yes, Tucci’s upper arms were substantial. But what was really charming about this short, surprisingly successful video was probably something else: Tucci’s mischievous, a bit boyish joke, the flirtation with his wife behind the camera, which gave the illusion that he was meant for himself. Added to this was his palpable delight in one simple thing – a drink.
“Taste”, Tucci’s memoir, which is currently being published in German, is in a way the logical continuation of this one-minute appearance – often with a bit of a wink and full of culinary enthusiasm. Tucci writes that it has almost more to do with him than his decades-long acting career. That’s why the German subtitle “My life for kitchen and camera” is inappropriate. Because Tucci is also an actor and director; but he is first and foremost a good eater.
…then onions…
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Bild: Picture Alliance
“Taste” tells a life in meals. It’s hard to say how much fun this book will bring to people who don’t like to eat. “Taste” is hardly the right book for anyone who doesn’t find much interest in lengthy descriptions of complicated Christmas menus.
Talking about dinner over lunch
But for people who, as is customary in Italy and apparently also in the Tucci household, are already talking about what might be for dinner over lunch, reminiscing about gastronomic highlights and talking shop about different versions of the same dish (Tomato sauce with onions or with garlic?), Taste is an entertaining read.
Stanley Tucci was born in 1960 to an Italian-American family in a small town in upstate New York. As the cliché goes, this family still cooks a lot and apparently eats excellently to this day.
Tucci presents his childhood as an endless succession of pasta, sandwiches and casseroles, prepared in large batches by his mother. However, it would be wrong to say that the actor glorifies this time in retrospect. At one point he describes his grandparents’ wine cellar, where salami and cheese hang from the ceiling alongside jars of pickled peppers and tomatoes.