Before the pandemic upended travel, Academy Award-nominated actor Stanley Tucci took a series of trips to Italy to document the glories of Italian cuisine. These weren't mere pleasure trips. In February 2020, CNN announced what Tucci was up to: creating a food and travel series that sounded like a love letter to Italy. Sadly, the letter couldn't be sent.
Now, a year later, “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” debuts on CNN this Sunday, February 14—yes, on Valentine's Day—showcasing Tucci’s beloved ancestral home of Italy, dish by dish, with lush scenery from the countryside and vibrant city streets and trattorias.
“People have broken down the regional cooking of Italy, but I don't know that I've ever really seen it cohesively in a television series,” says Tucci, who also produced the series. “So, that was my idea, because I'm obviously fascinated by Italy.”
The series kicks off in Southern Italy, starting in Naples and the Amalfi Coast, before diving into Rome, Bologna, Milan, Tuscany, and finally, Sicily. In six episodes, Tucci meets with friends, family and many acquaintances, from a Sicilian princess with a Timballo recipe to a cheesemaker of Alpine Bitto Storico Ribelle.
After bringing to life some of the most memorable and celebrated food scenes in cinema in films such as Julie & Julia and Big Night, it's a pleasure to watch the Italophile share his real-life enthusiasm for Italian cuisine on screen. His respect for restaurants and food comes through as he sidesteps staff in cramped kitchens and carefully looks for a seat in elegant dining rooms, while speaking in both English and Italian. Through smart dialogue and a rigorous itinerary packed with plenty of contrasts, food myths are dispelled and complex issues, like immigration and migration, are brought to the table.
“I learned so much," he says. "I hope that when people watch it they will learn something, too, and be excited and salivate because of it. And understand that Italian cuisine isn't just pizza, a meatball, and something that someone once called ‘red sauce.’”
Here are 4 great reasons to watch “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.”
1. Tucci Polished His Italian In Order to Be A Better Host
When Tucci was 13 years old, the family moved to Florence, Italy, for his father Stan's sabbatical. After two months of attending school in Italian, Tucci became fluent in the language. Since then, he has taken Italian lessons to prepare for acting roles, like Secondo, the charming restaurateur in Big Night, and again for this latest series. Unlike many food and travel series, where the hosts speak almost exclusively in English, Tucci uses both languages. But Tucci says there's room for improvement. “Every time I went to Italy, I still spoke Italian, and I pitied the people I spoke with,” he says in self-deprecating style. “Before the [CNN] series—so now like a year and a half ago—I started taking lessons again. It was invaluable.”
2. The Series Shows All Kinds Of Italian Cooking, Not Just Spaghetti and Meatballs
We don’t have to wait long for San Marzano tomatoes, Neapolitan fried pizza, and the four pastas of Rome that Americans have grown to love dearly to make an appearance. (Spoiler alert: Cacio e pepe and Carbonara are on the menu.) In much of the series, Tucci indulges in regional dishes and ingredients less often served in American Italian restaurants. But in Bologna, Tucci can't stop himself from going “deep into Bolognese.” There, he tries an original sauce recipe from one of Italy’s most historic cookbook authors, Pellegrino Artusi, and uncovers why “people pair it with spaghetti inappropriately.”
3. The Show Introduces Famous Italian Chefs, Local Celebrities, and Cooks
From Michelin-starred chefs to heroic survivors of the Nazi Occupation in World War II, Tucci meets with some of the country’s most intriguing personalities. Those suffering from wanderlust will be rewarded for taking notes, because Tucci's itinerary will inspire great trips and meals in the future. Tucci spends time with one of Italy’s most famous chefs, Osteria Francescana's Massimo Bottura (Chef’s Table). Together, they sample Emilia-Romagna’s delights, cracking open a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano and munching on farm-fresh ricotta with honey.
4. Tucci and the late Anthony Bourdain Have More in Common than a CNN Docu-series
Not only do they now have a CNN food and travel docu-series in common, but they shared a friendship. Tucci said he admires the work of the late chef Anthony Bourdain, whom he knew well. When Tucci co-wrote, directed, and acted in Big Night, he shadowed Gianni Scappin, an Italian chef at Le Madri, a Tuscan restaurant in New York City that has since closed. Bourdain also trained under Scappin and when Tucci, his parents, and Scappin collaborated on a family cookbook, Bourdain wrote an endorsement.