Taste: The No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Product Information

Who is the author? Stanley Tucci is an Italian-American actor, director, cookbook author, writer, and self-declared food lover. When he’s not gracing our screen in movies like The Devil Wears Prada or Julie & Julia, he can be found exploring the varied landscape and cuisine of Italy in his latest award-winning television venture, Searching for Italy. Fortunately, things worked out in the end, but after two years of surgery, chemo, pain, and a long recovery.

An instant classic . . . As captivating, simple, charming and insanely moreish as the best Italian food. Take it to bed with you and you will fall asleep dreaming you're in Italy. But take it to the kitchen and you will find yourself using it as often as a pan or a peeler Stephen Fry This superb book... Taste enriches the reader and establishes Tucci as one of the wisest and most generous personalities of our time." -- Roger Lewis, Daily Mail Stanley Tucci puts the sexy in Sixty! He's that handsome, bald, Italian-American guy, with the devilish smirk, who you just know he's thinking about something good. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed watching Stanley Tucci act in movies and in television programs, so I was happy when he published his memoir! Since a very young age as a boy growing up in a large and extended Italian family in upstate New York, Stanley was interested in food and its preparation. To me, eating well is not just about what tastes good but about the connections that are made through the food itself. I am hardly saying anything new by stating that our links to what we eat have practically disappeared beneath sheets of plastic wrap. But what are also disappearing are the wonderful, vital human connections we’re able to make when we buy something we love to eat from someone who loves to sell it, who bought it from someone who loves to grow, catch, or raise it. Whether we know it or not, great comfort is found in these relationships, and they are very much a part of what solidifies a community.”Describing Stanley Tucci wife, Felicity Blunt, cooking roast potatoes and complete confusion when they watch her boiling, fluffing them up and covering in goose fat. Absent that connective tissue, “Taste” at times seems less like a labor of love than an exercise in brand extension. Tucci has, in collaboration with family members, produced cookbooks. One of his early films, which he not only acted in but also helped to write and direct, was “Big Night,” about a quirky restaurant and a very important dinner. And he has a popular culinary travelogue show, “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” on CNN. A memoir was missing. Now it’s not. 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.” (chapter 8). We must eat pasta recipes that are approved by Italians! Taste” begins in a charming way setting the table (pun intended and achieved – haha, Tucci!) for a delightful read. Tucci jumps into his past as a child and hashes tales of his family and thus ultimately reveals how he became the man that he is today. In fact, he had such a lovely upbringing (I’m sure there are skeletons in the closet but “Taste” was simply not the time or place to reveal them); that readers with traumatic lives (such as myself) might be slightly triggered and envious. That being said; this simply means that Tucci is a wonderful storyteller and is able to bring a narrative visually to life. At this point, “Taste” is very emotive to the reader. Now, I am not one who is necessarily drawn to the Michelin star. Often I find that many of the restaurants that have earned this coveted award are a bit fussy, to say the least, and I’ve left a few of them completely famished, as I have never found pretentiousness very filling.”

There are recipes! Many recipes. For pasta of various types. For ragout. For meat. For fish. Two very different styles of roast potatoes. He talks about the history of the Martini (yes, it must have a capital M). There is a lot of talk about cheese. I looooove cheese. My stomach rumbled. I had obviously seen this book around…..so when the library had it available, I thought I would chime in. It is said that Negronis are like breasts: “One is not enough, two is perfect, and three is just too many.” Today I am tempted to see what happens if I drink four.”Our relationship with fire and food has shaped us as human beings, it connects us in a unique way, to ourselves, the people we love and this beautiful planet we live on. It is a wonderful story of and told by a wonderful man through his food memories. It is as infectious as it is delicious, as funny as it is insightful. The only reason to put this book down, is to go cook and eat from it.” – Heston Blumenthal