This is the premise of Stanley Tucci’s 1996 opus Big Night, a film he co-wrote, co-directed and starred in. Food has found its way into many aspects of Tucci’s career: his role as Paul Child in Julie & Julia, popular CNN docu-series Searching for Italy and recent memoir “Taste: My Life Through Food.”
Christopher Kimball caught up with Tucci on Milk Street Radio to learn more about all of these—plus, Tucci’s two cents on garlic.
Read excerpts from the interview below, and listen to the full episode here.
On Paul Child
He was a kind of renaissance man. He was a photographer, a painter. He was an expert in Judo, he was a cultural and diplomatic liaison. He was a real gourmand, and you know [his marriage to Julia] was probably the most perfect marriage ever.
On cooking with Meryl Streep before shooting Julie & Julia
It was just helpful. I think just doing some activity that is akin to what you're going to be doing in the film can be very helpful. [Meryl] agreed and we cooked from Julia Child's cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” She made a tarte tatin and I tried to make some sort of some artichoke thing, but I kind of messed it up—it wasn't very good.
On Searching for Italy
I wanted to really separate Italy region by region. And I wanted to make sure that we were telling stories that were historical, that addressed contemporary social and political issues. But everything was done through the prism of food in order to show, as much as you can, what's the genesis of the cuisine in any given region. And where is it now? And what's it connected to?
Italians don’t do takeout
They don't do that. They cook, or they go out. By the time pasta gets to you, it's gross. Italians are very much about respecting the process of cooking and respecting that it needs to be eaten when it's cooked.
On the eternal debate of minced garlic in food
Certain dishes—like ragú—are some of the only times minced garlic works. Or if we make a breadcrumb mixture with parsley, a little bit of garlic, and you're going to put that over bluefish or mushrooms. You have to make sure that it isn't too much, it has to be the right amount.
Quotes have been edited for clarity.
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