Last Thursday, when Katherine mentioned she had listened to Stanley Tucci read Taste on the audiobook, I didn’t realize what a miracle it is that he was able to read it. He had surgery to remove an enormous cancerous tumor from the base of his tongue, and he feared he wouldn’t be able to talk well again. For an actor, that would mean a loss of his livelihood. For Tucci, it was even worse. He feared he would never be able to taste and enjoy food again.

In the course of writing his memoir, he came to realize that he really does live for food, for the preparation, the sharing, the taste and joy of it. That’s what he shares in this book, his memories of food along with a number of recipes. Those memories begin with his childhood in New York, sixty miles north of Manhattan. He grew up in an Italian family for whom food was important. It was the primary activity and main topic of conversation in his family. His mother was a creative cook, and his father always appreciated her cooking.

Tucci shares that appreciation for food, whether through his memories of family meals or family holiday celebrations. He even shares that joy in his footnotes, such as, “I must confess that sometimes I think the best bread in Italy is in France.” There’s wit and charm throughout the book.

While Tucci shares many of his favorite memories of food over the years, he doesn’t neglect the sad moments of his life. He doesn’t go into great detail, but he does talk about the loss of his wife to breast cancer when she was only forty-seven. And, of course, he talks about his own cancer.

But, he talks about his children with love, and he talks about his second wife, Felicity Blunt, and her love of food. She’s shared some of his food adventures, and she shared both pandemic lockdowns with him. During the first lockdown in London, there were eight of them in the house, including an eighteen-year-old, his college-age twins, and a friend of theirs who couldn’t get to her family. His daily schedule trying to feed them, while tending to a toddler and a five-year-old, sounds horrendous. He makes a joke that his family ate all the meat in London during the first lockdown.

I really knew little about Stanley Tucci before reading this book. Yes, I’ve seen him in a few movies, including Julie & Julia, and he talks about that one, and his admiration for Julia Child. All the details of his life are interesting, but it’s the food that readers will remember. And, I think Tucci will be happy if it’s the food people remember about Taste: My Life Through Food.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci. Gallery Books, 2021. ISBN 9781982168018 (hardcover), 291p.

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