Taste: My Life Through Food

by Stanley Tucci

Overall: I love food, cooking, and movies, so I expected Taste: My Life Through Food to hit all the sweet spots, and it did not disappoint. This memoir-cum-cookbook takes us through the actor’s life, providing recipes periodically as we move from his childhood in a close-knit Italian family in New York state through marriage, parenthood, success as an actor, and a cancer diagnosis. Wry humor leavens the heavier topics, like the death of his beloved first wife, without robbing them of their emotional heft.  I highly recommend the audiobook, which Tucci narrates with perfect comic timing.

Likes: The food descriptions are scrumptiously detailed; I successfully made his recipe for spaghetti alle zucchine (pasta with zucchini, as you probably suspected) to celebrate finishing this book. Little vignettes from his life as an actor or celebrity are sprinkled judiciously, like a truffle garnish – a reference a famous actor here, an allusion to a movie there. One of the most fun chapters is about dining on film sets, with Tucci contrasting his experiences in many different countries. I thought he got the balance of personal revelation (his fight against cancer while trying to parent a newborn) and private (his older children make very brief cameos) just right.

Dislikes: I enjoyed this book tremendously, but I did have two small quibbles. First, there is a lot of emphasis on this book on recipes as family heirlooms, which I think is great…up to a point. Many people may not have family food traditions, for a variety of reasons, and I think it’s important to feel free create our own. (And I can’t help but think that Tucci’s family, and maybe even Tucci himself, would enjoy being freed of a few, especially the tyranny of the Christmas timpano.)  Second, there is a lot about alcohol in this book.  A. Lot.  I wish it was confined to a single chapter, so I could tell you that you could just skip over it, but if you’re someone who struggles with alcohol addiction, having Tucci wax rhapsodic for pages about Negronis and Martinis may be too much.

FYI: death of a spouse, cancer. Lots of references to alcohol.