Author Guide · Food Memoir & Cookbooks
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In 1996 Stanley Tucci co-wrote, co-directed and starred in Big Night, a film about two Italian brothers whose restaurant stakes everything on a single dinner. Food has run through his books in the same way. Two are family cookbooks; then, in September 2021, weeks before his memoir Taste came out, he revealed that he had been treated for cancer at the base of his tongue about three years earlier, and that for a time he could barely eat or drink. Taste spent 16 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. This guide covers his 4 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 key books · 2012–2024 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Stanley Tucci has written four books: The Tucci Cookbook (2012), The Tucci Table (2014, with Felicity Blunt), the memoir Taste: My Life Through Food (2021) and the food diary What I Ate in One Year (2024), which won at the 2025 British Book Awards. Start with Taste. Read on for which book suits which reader.
Where to Start with Stanley Tucci
If you want his life story
→ Taste (2021) — the memoir, told through meals.
If you want more of the same voice, in diary form
→ What I Ate in One Year (2024) — a year of eating, written day by day.
If you want to cook his family’s food
→ The Tucci Cookbook (2012) — the recipes he grew up with.
If you cook for a crowd
→ The Tucci Table (2014) — written with his wife, Felicity Blunt.
4 Stanley Tucci Books, in Order
The Tucci Cookbook
Published by Gallery Books on 9 October 2012, his first book: a cookbook of his family’s Italian-American recipes. He grew up in Katonah, New York, in a family where, as he later put it, everything was about eating and cooking.
The Tucci Table
Written with his wife, the British literary agent Felicity Blunt, whom he married in 2012, and published by Gallery Books in 2014. As the subtitle says, it is a cookbook for cooking with family and friends.
Taste
Published by Gallery Books on 5 October 2021. A memoir told through food, from the meals of his Italian-American childhood onwards, which also covers the oropharyngeal cancer that was treated with chemotherapy and radiation and for a time left him barely able to eat. It spent 16 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
What I Ate in One Year
Published by Gallery Books on 15 October 2024. A diary of what he ate over one year, with the “related thoughts” of its subtitle. It won the Non-Fiction: Lifestyle and Illustrated category at the 2025 British Book Awards.
In What Order to Read Stanley Tucci
None of the books depends on another. Most readers start with Taste, the only full memoir, and then go on to What I Ate in One Year, which continues in the same voice but is written as a diary, entry by entry.
The two cookbooks are for cooking rather than reading straight through. The Tucci Cookbook is his parents’ Italian-American kitchen; The Tucci Table, written with Felicity Blunt, is aimed at cooking for family and friends.
A reading path
1. Taste (2021)
2. What I Ate in One Year (2024)
3. The Tucci Cookbook (2012)
4. The Tucci Table (2014)
The years · 1960–2024
Quick facts about Stanley Tucci
- Known for
- Stanley Tucci is the American actor and director of Big Night who became a food writer and presenter, best known on the page for his memoir Taste.
- 1960
- Born in Peekskill, New York
- 1996
- Big Night
- 2021
- Taste
- Born
- 11 November 1960, Peekskill, New York
- Film
- Co-wrote, co-directed and starred in Big Night (1996)
- Television
- Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, CNN (2021–2022)
- Married
- Kathryn Spath (1995; she died in 2009), then Felicity Blunt (2012)
- Health
- Treated for oropharyngeal cancer with chemotherapy and radiation
- Book award
- British Book Awards 2025, for What I Ate in One Year
The red mark is 2021: Taste, his memoir, which spent 16 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
How Stanley Tucci Writes
Tucci writes about his life through what he ate at each stage of it. Taste starts from the food of his Italian-American childhood, in a family where, he has said, “everything was about eating and cooking and preparing, enjoying food, growing food, everything.”
What I Ate in One Year drops the memoir structure for a diary, which lets him move from a meal to the “related thoughts” of its subtitle. The two cookbooks come from the same family kitchen.
Illness is part of the story. He writes plainly about the cancer treatment that for a time left him unable to eat normally. For other writers who tell their lives through food, see the guides to Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl.
Frequently asked questions about Stanley Tucci’s books
How many books has Stanley Tucci written?
Four: The Tucci Cookbook (2012), The Tucci Table (2014), Taste: My Life Through Food (2021) and What I Ate in One Year (2024).
What are Stanley Tucci’s books in order?
The Tucci Cookbook (2012), The Tucci Table (2014, with Felicity Blunt), Taste (2021) and What I Ate in One Year (2024).
Where should I start with Stanley Tucci?
With Taste (2021), his memoir. If you like it, What I Ate in One Year continues in the same voice.
What is Stanley Tucci’s most famous book?
Taste: My Life Through Food, which spent 16 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
Is Taste a cookbook?
No, it is a memoir told through food. His two cookbooks are The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table.
Did Stanley Tucci have cancer?
Yes. In September 2021 he said he had been treated about three years earlier for a tumour at the base of his tongue, with chemotherapy and radiation. He writes about it in Taste.
Who is Felicity Blunt?
A British literary agent, and Tucci’s wife since 2012. She co-wrote The Tucci Table (2014) with him.
Is What I Ate in One Year worth reading after Taste?
It is written as a diary rather than a memoir, but covers the same subjects of food, family and work, and won the Non-Fiction: Lifestyle and Illustrated category at the 2025 British Book Awards.
Is Searching for Italy based on his books?
No. Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy was a CNN travel series (2021–2022) about regional Italian food. Taste was published during its run and covers some of the same interests.
Footnotes
- Stanley Tucci — Wikipedia
- For Stanley Tucci, food is like religion, and cancer almost took it away — NPR via Michigan Public, 2021
- Stanley Tucci on food, cancer and his memoir Taste — NPR
- Book of the Year: Non-Fiction Lifestyle & Illustrated 2025 — The Bookseller
- The Tucci Cookbook — Simon & Schuster
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I’m not a religious person, but if there is one thing that’s holy, it would be food.”
— Stanley Tucci, interview with NPR, October 2021
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