Actor Stanley Tucci, back to host Tucci In Italy 2, says his show is ‘not food porn’

LOS ANGELES – Stanley Tucci is best known for playing the dapper Nigel Kipling, the fan-favourite art director in The Devil Wears Prada films (2006 and 2026), the second of which is top of the box office in Singapore.

But after going viral in 2020 for his charming Covid-19 lockdown videos – in which he soothingly mixed a variety of cocktails at home – the veteran character actor stumbled on a second career as a food and travel show host.

In Tucci In Italy, which premiered in 2025, the 65-year-old American guides viewers through the cuisine and landscapes of the country – the birthplace of his Italian grandparents.

The travel and food series is a follow-up to Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy (2021 to 2022), which won two consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series.

At a May 2 Los Angeles screening for Season 2 of Tucci In Italy, which is showing on Disney+, the star, who is also an executive producer, describes the series as a labour of love.

The idea for the show was personal, says Tucci, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in the supernatural drama The Lovely Bones (2009).

“I wanted to break Italy down region by region and tell the story of Italy through its food, and the only way I could do that was to be incredibly specific.”

Italians are fiercely regionalistic when it comes to food and culture, says the actor, who won Emmys for his performances in the biographical drama Winchell (1998) and the detective comedy-drama series Monk (2002 to 2009).

“Most Italians, particularly Sicilians, will say, ‘No, I’m not Italian. I’m Sicilian.’ Or, ‘Yes, I’m Tuscan, but actually, I’m Florentine.’”

And he argues that Italian cuisine is more varied than many people realise, having incorporated African, French, Spanish, Arab and Austrian influences over many centuries.

“If you look at where Italy is geographically, it’s a sitting duck for invaders, that’s why the food is the way it is.

“I don’t know another country so diverse in culinary design,” says Tucci, who also appeared in The Hunger Games science-fiction blockbusters (2012 to 2015).

This is why Italians are so defensive when it comes to their regional cuisines.

“They’re very tribal and territorial. And that’s why Italians are so connected to their town and their family – you don’t even trust people outside of your family,” adds Tucci, who has two children, aged 11 and eight, with wife Felicity Blunt, 45, and three adult children with his late first wife.

The series is packed with shots of gorgeous food, but he did not want anything exaggerated.

“For me, the most important thing is that it’s not food porn.

“It’s nice when food looks beautiful, but there’s a distance that’s created, and it just becomes like an object,” says Tucci, who also directed, co-wrote and starred in Big Night (1996), an acclaimed comedy-drama set in an Italian-American restaurant.

“What makes food interesting for me on film is not necessarily the physical beauty of it, but when a person is interacting with it.

“So I always insist there be a wide lens that can get the contributor, me and the food because that’s where the connection is.”

He is asked what happens if the food he samples for the show ends up not being all that good.

“Well, you have to remember that I’m an actor,” he quips. “There have been things that we’ve done and I’m, like, ‘No’, and we get rid of it. But, chances are, it’s pretty good.”

Tucci’s fondness for pasta dishes means those tend to feature prominently, though viewers with a sweet tooth might be disappointed.

“There aren’t a lot of sweets – desserts and puddings – in the shows. That’s just because I don’t really eat dessert,” he says apologetically.

A few days earlier, on April 30, Tucci and his The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The 43-year-old English actress is also Tucci’s sister-in-law, the actor having met her older sister Felicity, a literary agent, 20 years ago at the premiere of the first The Devil Wears Prada movie.

At their joint star ceremony, Blunt warmly embraced her brother-in-law and said she was thrilled to be receiving the honour with him.

Gesturing at the two stars bearing their names embedded in the pavement along Hollywood Boulevard, she said: “We spend far too much time together – and now we’re going to spend even more time together as people trample over us.”