Taste: My Life Through Food

Great read and story plus yummy recipes!

I love Stanley Tucci’s Book: Taste: My Life Through Food An absolutely wonderful story of family, love, wit, and humble descriptions of the origins of the many recipes of his repertoire, as well as the background of his movie career. A wonderful son, husband, dad, actor, writer, and of course, a most brilliant Chef! Bona Fortuna amici!

TASTE: MY LIFE THROUGH FOOD is written by Stanley Tucci. I enjoyed reading this book very much. TASTE is many things - an appreciation for and enjoyment of food (especially Italian); a cook book loaded with family recipes; a memoir. TASTE is well-written; detailed; very personal (it is a memoir, after all); realistic and to-the-point; humorous at times and sentimental; very reminiscent of his childhood. It is a bit of a travel book in that his very personal descriptions of his childhood home; New York City; Italy; London; Iceland (and all points in between); and the interiors of countless restaurants reflect his personality and great affinity for food. There are many wonderful recipes - the Negroni cocktail recipe was my favorite; that and Spaghette con Zucchine alla Nerano. Wait! Every recipe was my favorite. His comments on cooking programs and Julia Child, in particular, were very sincere. (*Mr. Tucci played the character of Paul Child, Julia’s husband, in the movie, ‘Julie and Julia’). He mentioned his cooking show, ‘Searching for Italy’. (I have not watched it, but I am very interested.) He writes of the historic and traditional aspects of food. ex. Billo Storico (Historic Bitto) cheese from northern Italy. He wrote of his very serious illness. I am very glad of his recovery. Chapter 20 (the last chapter) was the best, where he discusses his love affair with food. Thank you to Mr. Tucci for this ‘food romance’ book - A new literary genre! I loved it. ****

Excellent read with a few recipes, stories, a ton of curse words, and a bit of wisdom. I love his cookbook so I knew I'd love this one. I took it on a cruise and devoured it, drooling a bit, and was actually sad I did not have access to a kitchen to recreate a few of his favorites. I handed the book over to my husband and HE devoured it. My husband is a very slow, meticulous reader so for him to devour a book, it had to be engaging. Now the hubs wants a wheel of parmesan and a paella pan.

I will follow Tucci anywhere just to cook and share a meal with him. he inspires me!

I am part Italian. This was a lovely read on Italian and American culture with stories about his time with certain movies and sets. Recipes for dishes are included. I was inspired to try one or two and watched a movie that he wrote about.

Tucci, S. (2021). Taste: My life through food. Gallery Books. Stanley Tucci is an actor and a filmmaker. He brought his love of food in the series Searching for Italy where he took viewers on a food tour of Italy. I tend to like books that talk about food and Stanley Tucci's memoir was wonderful. His description of pasta left my mouth watering to the point that I made spaghetti that very night. He begins by talking about his mother's love of food: "there was a daily, almost obsessive focus on the quality of the ingredients, their careful preparation the passing on of family recipes, and cultural and culinary traditions." Weaving stories, recipes, and descriptions of food experiences and traditions we learn about Tucci as a young man, actor, and family man. We also learn about his values. For example, his mother exhorted, "You can't know if you don't like something if you haven't had it. You have to try it. You have to try everything." He described food as "connective tissue" bringing people together. Tucci noted, "if you're a food lover, there is always something gratifying about connecting with the vegetable, the fruit, or whatever animal, whether you've grown it, raised it, or hunted it, before it becomes your food. But to make that connection and then connect with someone else simultaneously is an exalted, almost spiritual level of foodie intimacy." He reserved his experience of throat cancer until the chapter. It was as though, the prior chapters were the prelude to fully understanding how threatening oropharyngeal cancer would be to a man who clearly loves food. His diagnosis meant that for almost two years, he primarily ate easy to swallow foods. Reflecting, he said: "Food at once grounded me and took me to other places. It comforted me and challenged me. It was part of the fabric that made up my creative self and my domestic self." This would be a wonderful book to discussion food culture, the sociology of food, and hospitality - food as a weaver of the social fabric.

This was a book club read. I liked it, but wouldn’t recommend it, but all of our members who love to cook, or are of Italian heritage loved it.

Did not dislike anything! A wonderful book to read and keep forever.

Grea read and well-written. Fun. Interesting. Makes you keep reading !

This is an autobiography of Stanley Tucci and is a great read. It starts in mid life and is very interesting. When he describes family recipes he then gives a list of ingredients and how to prepare the recipe from scratch. This is a good insight into family meals. When he visits restuarants he advises what is good to eat there. This is great as we are going to Vancouver and we have made a reservation of the suggested restuarant for my birthday. There is one sad part as he describes when he has tongue cancer and the treatment given and how this affected how he ate. The style is very engaging and I read it swiftly. It is easy to follow and full of living with many children of varing ages. There is one sad part as he describes the treatment he had and the difficulty with eating with tongue cancer. Naturally he family were supportive. The way it is written is very engaging and is in a style that is easy to follow. I will read more of his books.

Amazing book, great storytelling and style Thanks Stanley)

but it's no Anthony Bourdain