Taste: My Life Through Food

Sometime in 2021 (how does one keep track of things that happened in that year that didn't fit any pattern?), my husband and I watched "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy." We were engrossed. Tucci travels around Italy, exploring the food cultures and the foods of different areas of the country. All we could think of as we watched was that we wished we could travel around Italy with Stanley Tucci. What a wonderful companion he would be. And the foodie doors he would open for us would be amazing!

In Renee's Reading Club, the Facebook group that I am a member of, a woman mentioned reading his memoir, Taste. It sounded wonderful. My husband is not a reader, but I thought he'd really enjoy it. Perfect choice for an audio book for the two of us to listen to together.

And boy, was it ever! We both so thoroughly enjoyed listening to this memoir! Each one of us for our own personal reasons. As Tucci described the role food played in his family, my husband was nodding his head. I was hearing it differently. My husband and I have very different attitudes towards food. As Tucci explained his connection to food, something clicked. My husband wasn't weird in his attitudes to food. He must be coming from the same place as Stanley Tucci. Stanley Tucci was raised by parents born in America with Italian roots. My husband was born in Italy but raised in America. I was raised as a 3rd generation American Jew. Big difference in attitudes towards food!

We both love food and we loved listening to Stanley Tucci tell his stories. We loved listening to him read off his recipes. I have requested the e-book from the library so I can copy some of them down. There were some laugh-out-loud moments and some tearful moments as well.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. And if you have the opportunity to listen to it rather than to read it, that's the route I'd take. 

While I'm waiting for the e-book and Season 2 of "Searching for Italy," I have The Tucci Cookbook to drool over. After listening to the first chapter of Taste, I knew that exactly what I needed to get my husband for Christmas. In addition to Tucci's cookbook, I got him two editions of Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi. One in English and the other in Italian (La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene. It's a book that Tucci recommended in the TV series, almost like the Bible of Italian food.

Buon appetito!