“He’s doing a really hard thing,” he says. “He’s brought them back into existence for the most part, because they were almost gone, feeds them all naturally and creates these products that are absolutely amazing. He’s not interested in expanding the business because he knows that would compromise the quality of what he does.”
It’s a philosophy that crops up again and again throughout the series: small scale, big flavour, high quality. All the dishes featured are made with ultra-local ingredients native to their specific locale. In Sicily’s largest city, Palermo, arancina (“never arancini”) is feminine, whereas in Catania, it’s “arancino”; masculine, and both are filled distinctly owing to differing cultural influences from the Middle East and Spain. In Procida, a two-mile-wide island in Campania and the smallest and least-visited after Capri and Ischia, Stanley tries insalata di limoni. This, as it turns out, is just a bowl of chopped lemons finished with a few sprigs of mint – it sounds strange but, as Tucci learns, lemons that grow here have a strong and unique natural sweetness that lends itself to the perfect salad dish.
That obsession with regionality and craftsmanship isn’t confined to Italy, either. It’s one of the reasons Tucci has long loved London, the city he’s called home since 2013, after decades living in New York. “London is becoming the food Mecca of the world,” he says. “I think that’s wonderful – I love all the diversity of it.” There are plenty of restaurants here he revisits often, including Soho tapas joint Barrafina, modern European spot Quo Vadis, the storied former home of Karl Marx, and – of course – The River Cafe, beloved Italian icon of West London, with its daily changing menus that changed the game for the meaning of seasonality.
While he admits that New York has changed dramatically since he left – “there are so many neighbourhoods that I barely recognise now,” he says. “The emotional landscape of New York is significantly different” – he spent more time in the city while filming the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, rediscovering old favourites. “Americans are very fond of knocking things down and building something huge in its place, but New York is as protected as it can be,” he says. “It’s nice to go back and to know that there are certain constants; whether that’s a street corner, a building, museum or a restaurant.”
Tucci’s regular NYC pilgrimages include Il Gattopardo – an Italian restaurant, of course, but one where his order, surprisingly, isn’t pasta. “I’ll go for the goat,” he says. “It’s delicious; not quite a stew, just braised slowly.” Then there’s Minetta Tavern, the celeb-magnet vintage-style French joint that’s been revamped a few times over the years, he says, but remains as great as ever.
But it’s Italy that really has Tucci’s heart. The actor hasn’t lived there since he was a child, but it was the first place he returned after graduating university, when he took a solo interrailing trip through Europe, hopping through Florence, Venice, Vienna, Paris and London, using the popular Frommer guidebooks penned by American travel writer Arthur Frommer. “I did Europe for $25 a day, including accommodation, and I’m not kidding,” he says.
