Monday, September 23, 2024

Taste: My Life Through Food

Title: Taste: My Life Through Food
Author: Stanley Tucci
Published: October 5, 2021 by Gallery Books
Format: Hardcover, 291 Pages
Genre: Culinary Memoir

First Sentence: An Introduction. I grew up in an Italian family that, that put great import on food.

Blurb: Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about growing up in Westchester, New York, preparing for and filming the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia, falling in love over dinner, and teaming up with his wife to create conversation-starting meals for their children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burnt dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

Written with Stanley's signature wry humour and nostalgia, Taste is a heartwarming read that will be irresistible for anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.(GoodReads)

My Opinion: Part memoir, part travelogue, part cookbook, Stanley Tucci envelopes the love of all things life has to offer. Well, except for acting, it appears that part of his life lost its luster along the way, even though he isn’t beyond namedropping.

In addition to recipes, Tucci shares antidotes from his travels and how food has always been a core part of who he is. There is a small section at the end where he discusses his cancer diagnosis and how the cancer didn’t scare him as much as the idea that he might never be able to taste and enjoy the food that brought him so much happiness and was a reminder of the people and places of his past.

There is humor in this book – how could there not be. But food, family, and fun are at the forefront and that is what makes this book an enjoyable experience.

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