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Books to read if you love The Bear

Best new paperbacks (2)

The best new paperbacks of 2025

A black and white photo of Stanley Tucci's head and shoulders.

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Interviews

Stanley Tucci on the best meal he’s ever eaten

My Life Through Food

Taste

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen. For Stanley and foodie fans, this is the perfect, irresistible gift. 
 
Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and his legendary Negronis, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around he table. In Searching For Italy, he revealed his passion for the secrets and delights of the country's many cuisines. Now, he shares the magic of a lifetime of meals, and the stories behind them. 
 
Filled with anecdotes about growing up, shooting foodie films like Julie & Julia, falling in love across the table, and making dinner for his family, Taste is a reflection on the joys of food and life itself. Through five-star meals and burnt dishes, and from the good times to the bad, each morsel of this gastronomic journey is as heartfelt and delicious as the last. 
 
'It's impossible to read this without becoming ravenous!' Nigella Lawson 
 
'Superb ... Establishes Tucci as one of the wisest and most generous personalities of our time' Daily Mail 
 
'The man, the myth, The Devil Wears Prada legend Stanley Tucci has blessed our hungry souls with a food memoir ... Prepare to feel bereaved when it's over' Evening Standard 
 
Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller, December 2022

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

A brilliant food-led memoir from the all-round gem, Stanley Tucci. It's a love letter to food and a life lived in the pursuit of the good things

Anna Jones, Author of 'One Pot, Pan, Planet'

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'

A delicious story of appetite, family and pasta. A serious amount of pasta. In this gloriously written memoir, the ever tasteful Stanley Tucci invites us to his table and feeds us all the good stuff

Tucci, as all the world knows by now, likes to eat and drink . . . His memoir, however, takes his passion to another level . . . The world needs more men like this

A divine celebration of food, Italy and life, this joyous memoir from the popular actor is a real treat

Moving, funny and greedy . . . If food is everything to you, you'll love it

His descriptions of the Italian food he grew up with, woven through with family stories and the recipes he's encountered on his travels, will leave you hungry - and in no doubt that this is a man who knows both how to eat and how to live

A delicious foodie memoir . . . An intimate reflection on the intersection between food and life

Incredibly seductive ... A warm and lovely book

Financial Times, Best Books of 2022: Food and Drink

Funny, heart-breaking, fascinating, intimate and beautifully-written

He writes as if the reader were sitting as a guest at his table regaling them with memories from his childhood, life and work, and richly describing the meals that underpinned them

This is a book I shall have in my kitchen, by the bed and in my suitcase whenever I travel to Italy. I plan to buy at least three for myself and my friends, and suggest you do too

Taste confirmed my impressions of Tucci: he really would be a dream dinner party host; he really does know about food, and cares deeply about its connective role in family and community. His zestful celebration of cultural heritage and culinary creativity reminds us to savour la dolce vita

I read it through the night. Food memoirs are tough to pull off, but Tucci's has the essentials: honesty, humour, humility and real acquired knowledge . . . I want the sequel

It's impossible to read this without becoming ravenous!

This superb book...Taste enriches the reader and establishes Tucci as one of the wisest and most generous personalities of our time.

The man, the myth, The Devil Wears Prada legend Stanley Tucci has blessed our hungry souls with a food memoir to feed our mounting appetite for the actor and cook's wit, warmth and, let's face it: tight polo shirts. He divulges some of his most treasured memories and stories behind favourite recipes - prepare to feel bereaved when it's over.

Punctuated with delicious recipes, his greedy memoir [...] reflects that food doesn't just nourish us: it enriches mind, body and soul

The actor delved back into his first love - food - in this delicious account

A fascinating and charming coming together of food and life

He was always likely to have a passion for food but the way it comes across in his writing is any foodie's dream. Each recipe has you drooling for a chance to cook it while the lead-in anecdotes give each dish a character of its own

Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has starred in The Devil Wears Prada and The Hunger Games, and more recently in Supernova and The Witches. He is also author of two cookbooks, The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook. Stanley lives in London.

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. Taste is an intimate reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about growing up in Westchester, NY, 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 for anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.

Stanley Tucci

A book to spark joy – and one to make you hungry

inews, The Best New Books to Read in October

Hard to resist ... While his diary is an enlightening insight into what it’s like to be one of the most well-connected men in the world , it’s more about how food can make your day ... A transporting ode to the joy of eating, cooking and sharing with the people you love

A hugely entertaining glimpse into a well-lived life full of fun, food, family, travel, work, passions and love. I adored every page of this voyeuristic treat of a book.

Everyone wants to spend a day and share a meal with Stanley Tucci and this is the perfect way to do it! Seeing the world through the eyes of beloved actor and culinary adventurer is a true joy. Every food lover will devour this book!

What I Ate In One Year is an absolute delight. Tucci's wit is dry as a martini; his observations as sharp as lemon tart, but really what I most adore about his writing is his ability to reach across the table and guide the reader not just through mealtimes, but through life itself. This book is beautiful and very moving and, as with all the best repasts, once I'd finished I immediately wanted to experience the whole thing again.

The actor reflects on his year through the lens of everything he ate. It's witty, joyful and hunger-inducing – a perfect gift for foodies if there ever was one

iPaper – The 30 best books for Christmas 2024

(and related thoughts)

‘Sharing food is one of the purest human acts' 
 
Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime. 
In What I Ate in One Year Tucci records twelve months of eating, in restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself. 
Ranging from the mouth-wateringly memorable, to the comfortingly domestic, to the infuriatingly inedible, the meals memorialized in this diary are a prism through which he reflects on the ways his life, and his family, are constantly evolving. Through food he marks – and mourns – the passing of time, the loss of loved ones, and prepares himself for what is to come.

Stanley Tucci

Praise for What I Ate in One Year

A book to spark joy – and one to make you hungry

Hard to resist ... While his diary is an enlightening insight into what it’s like to be one of the most well-connected men in the world , it’s more about how food can make your day ... A transporting ode to the joy ...

A hugely entertaining glimpse into a well-lived life full of fun, food, family, travel, work, passions and love. I adored every page of this voyeuristic treat of a book.

A book to spark joy – and one to make you hungry

Hard to resist ... While his diary is an enlightening insight into what it’s like to be one of the most well-connected men in the world , it’s more about how food can make your day ... A transporting ode to the joy ...

A hugely entertaining glimpse into a well-lived life full of fun, food, family, travel, work, passions and love. I adored every page of this voyeuristic treat of a book.

A book to spark joy – and one to make you hungry

Hard to resist ... While his diary is an enlightening insight into what it’s like to be one of the most well-connected men in the world , it’s more about how food can make your day ... A transporting ode to the joy ...

A hugely entertaining glimpse into a well-lived life full of fun, food, family, travel, work, passions and love. I adored every page of this voyeuristic treat of a book.

Books by Stanley Tucci

Articles featuring Stanley Tucci

Books to read if you love The Bear

The best new paperbacks of 2025

Stanley Tucci on the best meal he’s ever eaten

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