My Life Through Food
My coworker absolutely raves about this book and when I was looking for a new audiobook, I realized that this would be the perfect choice!
Synopsis
From the publisher marketing:
Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen 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 savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.
Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.
When my parents are no longer alive, I will always be able to put their teachings and all the love they gave me into a bowl and present it to someone who sadly will never have had the good fortune of knowing them. But by eating that food, they will come to know them, if even just a little.
Review
As I get back into writing reviews again (I’ve been spending the last few minutes putting in lots of work on my novel), I figured this gem was the perfect one to start with! I listened to the audiobook here, despite owning a signed hardcover, because when it comes to celebrity memoirs, I do greatly enjoy listening to them read their own books. I’ve also just started watching Stanley’s CNN show, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, and doing so has been very calming for me.
Taste is Stanley’s story of nearly his entire life, starting with some of his earliest childhood memories of being in the kitchen with his mother. Sprinkled throughout are recipes from drinks to pastas, and while it would seem weird to have them read in the audiobook, Stanley makes it work. I was openly salivating listening him talk about food while driving. While food is the thread that ties the whole book together, Stanley’s loss of taste in recent history was the most moving.
After losing his first wife to cancer, it was heartbreaking to learn that Stanley himself later suffered from oral cancer. For a man with a show based around food, and a great love of food throughout his life, to lose his sense of taste for nearly a year must have been agony. He discusses this time in his life with a mix of emotion and detachment. It is something he experienced and had to deal with, but also nearly broke him and deprived him of something that so many of us take for granted.
As someone who has had a complicated with food for the past fifteen years, I’ve been trying to be kinder to myself when it comes to the basic human sustenance, but I also find myself searching out amazing taste experiences, from new Nordic restaurants in Copenhagen to hole in the wall ramen shops in New York City. Listening to Taste put my own struggles in perspective and was, in part, a healing experience for me.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Celebration of Books 