New Yorker article on Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy

[Robin Garr]

After seeing Jenise post within another thread about Stanley Tucci's CNN series, “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” I've had it on my to-watch list. Now comes The New Yorker with a long, sometimes too-cute but interesting article about the show, Tucci, and to a degree, the writer's fascination with Tucci's buff 60-year-old bod.

Worth a read. I'll post the first couple of long paragraphs below, in case of paywall issues, with a link to the complete New Yorker article at the end.

If you've watched the show, what did you think?

The Timeless Fantasy of Stanley Tucci Eating Italian Food
In CNN’s culinary travel series, Italy is beautiful and the food of Italy is beautiful. Not insignificantly, Tucci is beautiful, too.
By Helen Rosner
March 27, 2021
Several episodes of the CNN series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” open with a message that’s part apology and part warning: “The following episode was filmed prior to the start of the covid-19 outbreak.” For the couch-bound viewer, any travel show is a portal to fantasy. But a show like this—airing in a time like this—is escapism of another order. Here there are olive trees and cow-dappled hills and the blue-green sea, sure, but also cheek-kiss greetings and crowded piazzas, tiny café tables and narrow alleyways. Tucci, the show’s host, wanders through Italy’s regions unmasked, unfettered, chatting amiably with cheesemakers and pizzaiolos, sipping aperitivos on rooftops, picking up petals of artichoke from a plate in a cramped restaurant kitchen. Everything, always, is drenched in heavy yellow sunlight, as if the nation were basking in the languor of eternal late afternoon.

“Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” which concluded its first season this past Sunday, is ostensibly educational. Each episode takes viewers on a tour of a specific region, and in each Tucci spends a bit of time with scholars and activists, discussing some aspect of the region’s history or politics or social strife. But mostly he eats, and talks about eating, and visits the farmers and producers and venders who provision his marvellous meals. Italy is beautiful. The food of Italy is beautiful. Not insignificantly, Stanley Tucci is beautiful, too. He strolls the narrow thoroughfares of Florence and Naples with the physical eloquence of a dancer, at once smoldering and restrained. He gazes at wheels of cheese and swirls of pasta as if the food must be seduced before it will consent to be devoured. The Tucci of “Searching for Italy” is a figure out of time: thick-framed glasses, white pants, a rich leather belt, a linen shirt tailored narrowly to the trapezoid of his torso, cuffs rolled just so, the hint of a bronzed and muscled forearm. He delivers sly jokes and engages in patter with shopkeepers in a mix of Italian and English. “This bread, it’s an aphrodisiac,” he says, standing outside a bakery in Bologna, and adds, “I’m all alone in a hotel; why would I want to do that?” His suave exterior shows cracks only in moments of sensory ecstasy. Taking a deep whiff of a split wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, or letting the funk of a ribbon of prosciutto blossom on his tongue, he moans, he sighs, he murmurs. The whole thing verges on obscene: Tuccissimo. ...

Link to full article:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annal ... =TNY_Daily

I was able to watch only a few of the episodes. Enjoyable but frustrated with only superficial mentions of ingredients and regional history and differences. So much more interesting information there. Perhaps I’m overly critical but what hit me hard was missing the unencumbered enjoyment of food shopping, piazza hopping and shopkeeper conversations . A lightness of being the absence of which is so oppressive in pandemic time.

[Robin Garr]

Christina, it sounds like you might not care but you can watch all the episodes on Hulu Premium, which you can get for $4.99 a month if you don't mind them throwing in some commercials.

https://www.hulu.com/series/f63d75b3-1b ... b1f1d26a9d

There was an article on CNN with Tucci's show, featuring recipes from famous Italian restaurants. I was interested in the 1891 Ragu Bolognese, which is billed as the "first recorded recipe". Not sure how they define that, maybe the first with specific quantities? Anyway, it in fact has no tomato, which is certainly something I've heard about "traditional" bolognese. It also uses only veal and pancetta for meat, no beef or pork. I think I'll make it just for historical interest. Love Tucci.

[Jenise]

We've loved the show. I only wish each episode were two hours, not one, so that the detail Christina craves could be there, too. But for what it is, and considering that I am not yet prepared for that kind of travel, I'm happy to ride along with Stanley. It has given us an excuse to have watch parties for 2, and eat Italian while watching (west coast time is perfect). So happy that CNN has ordered more episodes.

Walt--that bolognese. Years ago I cooked with a chef in Anchorage Alaska who made a similar veal filling--but didn't call it bolognese--that he wrapped in hand-rolled pasta rounds (a form of Cannelloni, I think) and smothered in Bechamel for baking. A serious regret of my life is that I lost the recipe, and searches for something similar since have not worked out but what she made for Stanley reminded me of what I remember about Jack's. Must do that, thanks for the tip about the recipe location.