Preserving unwritten family recipes
Tucci created the cookbook partly for selfish reasons to ensure recipes passed down through his family and co-author Gianni Scappin's family would not be lost.
Reviewed
Updated
Read Time
7 min read
Reader rating
4.7 · 3,869 Amazon ratings
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks scoreShare This Review
Our review
The Tucci Cookbook
The Tucci Cookbook Review: Simple Italian Family Cooking (Stanley Tucci)
The Tucci Cookbook gathers nearly 200 Italian family recipes from Stanley Tucci, with wine pairings and photography. A food blogger found the dishes simple and approachable, if not new or innovative.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Fans of Stanley Tucci's screen work curious about the Big Night connection and those seeking a family-rooted collection of traditional Italian dishes with wine pairings and appetising photography.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want simple, attainable recipes with a personal family story behind them and are happy for them to be classic rather than inventive.
Skip if
Skip it if you want fresh technique or novel dishes, since the one cook's-eye review found the recipes simple and traditional, and nothing we found covers the difficulty of showpiece dishes like the timpano.
What readers & critics say
The book works as a warm, traditional family cookbook, but the evidence is thin: the one cook's-eye review, from the Foodie Bibliophile blog, is positive, praising the photography, the thoughtfulness of the recipe selection and successful results from the recipes she tried, while noting the recipes are traditional rather than groundbreaking. Delicious magazine places it among the warm, inviting cookbooks that feel like a glimpse into someone's life, though that piece is a road test of the follow-up, The Tucci Table.
Sources: Foodie Bibliophile, delicious. magazine4.7from 3,869 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Ask LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
The Tucci Cookbook collects traditional Italian family recipes from actor Stanley Tucci, paired with wine and photography. The one cook's-eye review we found describes simple, attainable recipes rather than anything inventive, so it suits comfort-minded cooks more than technique-hunters.
- Is it worth reading?
- It delivers on simplicity: the Foodie Bibliophile blogger cooked a few recipes from a library copy, found them successful, and singled out the Milanese Risotto and the Egg Tart with Spinach and Potatoes. The caveat is novelty, since she also noted the recipes are traditional rather than groundbreaking. Nothing we found tests the harder showpiece dishes such as the Timpano.
- Similar books
- For traditional Italian cooking, Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and her Ingredienti: Marcella's Guide to the Market are the closest catalogue matches. Tucci's own Taste: My Life Through Food is the title to try if you want more of his personal story around the food. No review we found compares The Tucci Cookbook directly with Hazan's books, so treat these as shelf neighbours rather than sourced comparisons.
- Who should read this?
- Those seeking familiar Italian dishes with a family story behind them are the clearest fit, along with anyone who likes browsing a well-photographed cookbook. Fans of Tucci's film and television work are an obvious audience too, and Pamela Toler, as relayed by the publisher, says it appeals to both serious cooks and film buffs. Cooks chasing modern technique or surprising dishes should look elsewhere.
- What age is it for?
- This is a cookbook written for adults, and nothing in the sources we found flags any content concern.
- About Stanley Tucci
- Stanley Tucci Jr. is an American actor.
- Is there a film or TV adaptation?
- There is no adaptation of this cookbook that we know of, but there is a film connection. Tucci wrote, directed and starred in Big Night, a film about Italian brothers who open a restaurant on the 1950s Jersey shore. That film inspired an earlier, shorter cookbook, Cucina & Famiglia, written by his mother, Joan, and chef Gianni Scappin.
- Where did the family recipes come from?
- The biography on Book Series in Order describes Tucci's childhood in an Italian American household where food was revered and his mother cooked. It also notes the family spent a year in Florence in the early 1970s. The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer read his sharing of family history as a way of establishing credibility against celebrity cookbooks she described as cashing in.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
What age is it for?
About Stanley Tucci
Is there a film or TV adaptation?
Where did the family recipes come from?
Summarize this book
The Tucci Cookbook is a 2012 Gallery Books hardcover of Italian family recipes by Stanley Tucci, photographed by Francesco Tonelli. Each dish is paired with a wine, and the recipes are threaded with stories from the Tucci family table. Named dishes include a Venetian Seafood Salad, a polenta-and-Gorgonzola lasagna, roast duck with fresh figs and the Timpano.
Follow up
Which dishes does the publisher highlight?
Does any money go to charity?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
Ask LuvemBooks
What would you like to know about The Tucci Cookbook?
Answers come from our editorial notes on this book. If we haven't covered something, we'll say so.
Readers often ask
Our Review
The strongest sourced case for The Tucci Cookbook is that it is simple, traditional Italian home cooking from a family kitchen, backed by appetising photography; the main caveat is that none of it is new. The sources we hold do not cover how the recipes perform in a weeknight kitchen.
What does The Tucci Cookbook offer a home cook?
The book comes from Stanley Tucci, the actor and director behind the film Big Night, and photographer Francesco Tonelli. Gallery Books published the 400-page hardcover on October 9, 2012.
Simon & Schuster describes nearly 200 recipes, each paired with wine, along with photography and previously untold stories from the family's kitchen. Dishes the publisher names include Venetian Seafood Salad, a lasagna made with polenta and Gorgonzola, pork tenderloin with fennel and rosemary, roast duck with fresh figs, and the legendary Timpano.
The publisher presents it as a book for a new generation of Italian food lovers.
This review assesses the book's content, organisation and reception from published sources; it is not a kitchen test.
Are the recipes in The Tucci Cookbook easy to cook from?
The reviewer behind the Foodie Bibliophile blog is the one cook's-eye voice in the sources we hold. She found the recipes "quite simple and easily attainable for a home cook, though not particularly new or innovative," and added that there is nothing wrong with simple, easy and traditional.
The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer also wrote that Tucci is no slouch in the kitchen.
That reviewer borrowed the book from a library and says she made a few recipes, all successful, with the Milanese Risotto and the Egg Tart with Spinach and Potatoes as favourites. The blog reproduces the egg tart, which uses a potato, eggs, spinach and parsley, finished in a skillet and the oven.
The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer says she skipped peeling the potato and used frozen spinach.
The limitation is plain from the same review: readers hoping for fresh technique or novelty are told this is familiar territory. The sources we hold do not report on equipment, ingredient sourcing, difficulty (including the timpano) or suitability for weeknights.
How do the photographs and family stories shape the book?
The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer wrote that the photographs made her want more of them. The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer also credited the thoughtfulness of the recipe selection and Tucci's wish to share family history, which she read as a way of establishing credibility against celebrity cookbooks she described as cashing in.
The family angle is part of the book's design. Tucci's childhood in an Italian American household, where food was revered and his mother cooked, is the background the biography on Book Series in Order gives for the cooking.
It adds that the family spent a year in Florence in the early 1970s.
The publisher frames the book as a glimpse into the Italian heritage Tucci holds dear, sharing the memories and flavors of his family table. Simon & Schuster also notes that a portion of the profits goes to the Food Bank of New York City.
What did the book's champions and critics say?
Simon & Schuster's page carries endorsements from fellow food professionals. Lidia Bastianich is quoted there recommending it as an intimate glimpse into Tucci's Italian heritage, and Jonathan Waxman is quoted saying Tucci understands Italian food and Italian cooking.
Treat these as marketing copy rather than independent assessment.
The publisher also relays a line from blogger Pamela Toler, who said it will appeal both to serious home cooks and to film buffs. A review quoted by the publisher called generosity the best adjective for the book, from portion sizes to the theme of hospitality.
The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer's own verdict is warm but measured: impressed by the care, charmed by the photography, and clear that the recipes are traditional rather than inventive.
Is The Tucci Cookbook worth buying?
Weighing these reviews, the tension is between comfort and novelty. The Foodie Bibliophile reviewer enjoyed the cooking precisely because it is simple and traditional, yet noted it is not particularly new or innovative.
That points the book towards home cooks who want a family-rooted collection of classic Italian dishes with wine pairings, good photography and a personal story behind it. It points away from cooks seeking modern technique or surprises.
Fans of Tucci's screen work are also an obvious audience, since the publisher and Toler both frame the book around his film credits.
Tucci later wrote Taste: My Life Through Food and The Tucci Table, which some reviewers describe as a family collection of recipes from friends, in-laws and his children. For readers who want Italian home cooking with a stronger personal narrative, those are his other books on the subject; none of the sources we hold compare The Tucci Cookbook to other authors' Italian cookbooks.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
publishersweekly.com
- Further reading
- 2
Stanley Tucci, LuvemBooks
- 3
- 4
deliciousmagazine.co.uk
- 5
foodiebibliophile.com
- 6
- 7
barnesandnoble.com
- 8
bookseriesinorder.com
Stanley Tucci on The Tucci Cookbook
Stanley Tucci discusses the origins and family traditions behind 'The Tucci Cookbook'.
Uploaded by Simon & Schuster Books, 2013 · Watch on YouTube ·
Blending regions and rigorously testing recipes
The book combines Northern and Southern Italian traditions passed through generations, with all the measurements and cooking times rigorously tested.
From our readers
Reader reviews
Be one of the first readers to answer.
Read it? Was it right for you?
Books like The Tucci Cookbook
Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The Tucci Cookbook, with our reasoning for each match.
If you liked The Tucci Cookbook
Discussion