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STARS<br />
– & WINE –<br />
Stanley Tucci:<br />
A lover of wine and Italy<br />
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, director, producer and scriptwriter specialising in<br />
“geeky” roles. Born in 1960 in Peekskill, near New York, he began his film and television<br />
career in the 1980s and over the next decade, he made his mark in numerous supporting<br />
roles and also starred in the legal drama Murder One. He garnered international acclaim<br />
with blockbuster films including ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, ‘Julie and Julia’ and ‘Lovely<br />
Bones’. His latest screen appearances are in ‘Supernova’, where he falls in love with...<br />
Colin Firth, and a cooking documentary for CNN.<br />
Interview by Frank Rousseau, our correspondent in the United States<br />
Photographs: all rights reserved<br />
You recently featured on the American network CNN in a<br />
very ‘appetising’ mini-documentary food series, ‘Searching<br />
for Italy’, which is also available on YouTube for those who<br />
want to travel from their armchair. For several weeks, you<br />
travelled across Italy tasting the specialities of Tuscany,<br />
Sicily, Rome, Bologna, Naples and the Amalfi coast. Tell us<br />
about the experience...<br />
I come from a family of Italian immigrants and I am very proud<br />
of my heritage. Food has always been an obsession for me. When<br />
I am at the market, at the dinner table or in the kitchen, all my<br />
senses come alive. I have to taste, smell, touch, etc. Basically, I run<br />
around all over the place and stick out like a big stain of fresh<br />
tomato sauce on a newly starched white napkin! (laughs)<br />
You have also written recipe books...<br />
Some of the recipes come from my grandparents, who were<br />
born in Calabria. I remember that we didn’t often go out to<br />
restaurants because our family was broke. So we would stay at<br />
home and prepare simple, cheap meals with really tasty fresh<br />
produce. Like Uova fra diavolo - poached eggs in a marinara<br />
sauce. Every Friday evening my father would make us this for<br />
dinner. Honestly, I could have eaten it every day!<br />
And your first connection with wine?<br />
My father had a big wine press in his basement. Beside it were<br />
also two old oak barrels. Every year he made his own wine<br />
which we drank from small glasses. I remember him decanting<br />
his wine into a carafe that dated back to the 1920s!<br />
SPRING 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE 111
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