Stanley Tucci hopes new Italian food show offers viewers escapism, inspiration

UPI

18-05-2025

Stanley Tucci's "Tucci in Italy" premieres Sunday on NatGeo. It will be available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ Monday File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
May 18 (UPI) -- Six-time Emmy-winner Stanley Tucci says his cooking and travel shows have opened up his world and changed his life.
His latest docu-series, Tucci in Italy, premieres on National Geographic Sunday, and Hulu and Disney+ on Monday. It follows his previous hit, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, which ran for two seasons on CNN.
"it's brought me to places that I never thought I would go to meet people I never thought I'd meet, given me access to places that I wouldn't normally have access to," Tucci, 64, told UPi in a recent Zoom interview.
"I'm just learning more and more about the things I'm interested in -- two things -- which are food and Italy."
Tucci said Mother Nature dictates when and where the series is filmed as much as his own work schedule and personal life do.
Season 1 of Tucci in Italy was shot intermittently over the course of six or seven months.
"It has to be carved out very carefully because it takes a lot to plan it and you have to be aware of the seasons," he explained.
"If you're going to tell a story about, let's say the Palio [festival] in Tuscany, you have to know when is that happening and what access do you have? How long can you actually stay there? You can't just keep flying over," he added.
"You have to plan it out, so you do one or two episodes all at once and then you take a little break because, obviously, you just can't keep shooting that much. It's so tiring and then you have to come home and see your family and stuff like that."
Tucci spotlights Italy's culture and beauty by trekking around the country, taking in the sights and tasting amazing food everywhere from Michelin-star restaurants to local holes in the wall.
"I want them to enjoy it," Tucci said of the show's viewers.
"I want it to be, I suppose, in some ways, a form of escapism, and, yet, at the same time, I want them to understand how complex Italy is, and how diverse it is, and that it isn't just that all the places are sunny and everybody's happy and half the people are Mafiosi," he quipped.
Tucci also hopes the series inspires audiences to seek out locally grown, seasonal food and support local eateries to the extent that their means can afford in the locations where they live.
"That's what Italy is very good at," he noted.
"Contemporary, western societies are becoming less farm-to-table in a lot of ways. Sometimes, the people are fighting to reverse that and, in some places, that's being achieved, but globalization has taken a lot of that away," Tucci said. "So, I think we tried to tell stories that express that, that show the importance of that without being precious."
Tucci understands that not everyone has the access to or money for organic fruits, vegetables and meat.
"Let's face it. In America, how many people can actually afford organic produce? That's the problem," he said. "We have places where there are just food deserts. People have to drive forever just to go to a grocery store and then is that grocery store really going to have organic food?"
The show also emphasizes the social aspects of going out to dine in one's neighborhood or town.
"That's very much a part of Italian culture," the actor said. "That's why there are so many restaurants. People love to go to restaurants. A local trattoria is like the hub of the community and it's a really, really important place."
Tucci admitted that when he's not working, he loves to stay at home and cook for his wife Felicity Blunt and their kids.
"But, after a couple of weeks, I'm like, 'OK, now let's go out,'" he laughed.
The show's debut arrives just weeks after Tucci's Vatican-set political thriller, Conclave, saw a resurgence in popularity due to the real-life election of Pope Leo XIV.
"It's a movie that came from a beautiful novel by Robert Harris, but it's a movie," Tucci said, emphasizing that the work of fiction should not be seen as an historic record, even if it does shed some light on a mysterious process.
"Robert, obviously, did his research and we had a religious adviser on set all the time, so I think it's as true as it can be."
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Writer and director Stanley Tucci | License Photo