First published 2025
Stanley Tucci opens his kitchen diary to record a full year of eating. The New York Times bestselling author and award-winning actor documents meals across restaurants, film sets, press junkets, and home kitchens. He savors stracciatella soup near the Pantheon and marinara sauce between rehearsals. He shares homemade pizza with his children at bedtime and duck prepared by singing Carmelite nuns with fellow actors. Some dishes delight while others disappoint. Tucci uses these culinary moments to examine his changing life and family. Food becomes his lens for marking time's passage and mourning lost loved ones. He finds strength for future challenges through shared meals. Three generations gather around meatballs made by his mother and son. Friends join him for barbecued steaks. The year's worth of dining experiences reveals how meals shape daily life and create emotional connections across relationships and generations.
Genres: autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century, food-writing, culinary
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-journey
Setting: Pantheon, Rome
Period: One Year
368 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books Ltd