Stanley Tucci: Food, Memories, and Emotions - Jen Hatmaker
Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci: Food, Memories, and Emotions

“Even if you’re in a really shitty place, even if the food is terrible, but you’re eating with people that you love, it’ll be a memorable meal.” – Stanley Tucci

Episode 09

This week Jen and Amy sit down with the charismatic and engaging Stanley Tucci, to discuss his new book, ‘What I Ate in One Year’, that explores the deep connections we can find amongst the food we eat, the memories we make, and the emotions we feel and how our cultural practices around food can provide fuel for us, not just in times of celebration, but can also provide us comfort in times of grief. Stanley reflects on how food plays a role in both joyous and difficult moments, emphasizing the importance of sharing meals with loved ones, hoping that readers will find comfort and connection through his work, especially in a time when we are all experiencing more loneliness and disconnection.

Episode Transcript

Jen: Good morning.

Amy: Good morning.

Jen: Hello. Well, let’s start with this. I mean, I just finished our interview with our guest today, a phenomenal person. And I just said to you, I’m a little sweaty. Same, a little bit of, like, armpit sweat. And I didn’t even know that I did until it was over. And I was like, oh my gosh. I think he gives me I don’t know how to say this.

Jen: The flutters. Sure.

Amy:I mean I expected that. Yeah I actually used Fred’s Old Spice this morning instead of my normal, like natural.

Jen: Oh, oh, I see.

Amy: It didn’t matter, though.

Jen: Did you sweat through it? Me too. I kind of want to sound myself right now. Well, you know, I have a deodorant problem, which is a terrible thing when you’re going to interview Stanley Tucci. I mean, I don’t want to bury that lead. Golly. He is. What is the deal with him, man?

Amy: I don’t know. It’s.

Jen: Like his natural charm is he’s so magnetic a person. It’s. You can’t teach that.

Amy: In so authentic and easy. Yeah, like, as as nervous as I was. Sure. It was just a lovely conversation.

Jen: It was easy breezy. That just. It went away in a second. Yeah, he’s just. I have loved him for a big time. Long time. Like when you go through, like, the Stanley Tucci canon, you start going, oh my gosh, this dude everywhere, like he is just he is a success in like ten different categories. So let’s talk about this before we kind of get to it.

Jen: Do you over the all the years do you have a favorite Tucci. Whatever show movie, you know, just done a ton of theater. Yeah, whatever.

Amy: I would have said a different answer a couple of years ago and left him and all the normal things.

Jen: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Amy: And big night. And he’s. He’s a great actor.

Jen: Yes.

Amy: His CNN show is great little Italy show.

Jen: Oh, my God, I’ve seen every single episode.

Amy: But I think the thing that, like, I can actually, like, reconstruct how it made me feel in that exact moment is that first time he made a cocktail for his wife on Instagram during Covid, who’s like, it was just such a one off. Yeah. Like she just filmed to make it a cocktail, but like, that set off like a whole new category of fame and following for you. And you’re right, because it was, you know, that was the time when some of us stayed in the same pajamas for 7 to 10 days, and he was like, spiffy and making a cocktail. And I know.

Jen: That’s a good one.

Amy: I just saw that was like.

Jen: Oh, I know. And his wife, it’s just such a lovely thing. And the way they are together, so cute. She’s with him a lot, actually, and searching for Italy. It’s hard to pick a fave. I it I’ll just be honest. And I’m sorry if this is just too obvious, but Stanley Tucci in The Devil Wears Prada is like chef’s kiss.

Jen: Like that character he wore that character like it was tailor made for him. Everything about it from being absolutely bespoke the whole time. I mean, he’s bespoke and sort of flamboyant slash suave everything, everything, everything. I, I think that The Devil Wears Prada is probably when I get, I got radicalized for Stanley Tucci and then it just never ended.

Jen: I mean we’ll just be really honest with you guys listening when our team was like, okay, Stanley’s coming on the show, we didn’t handle it well. We did.

Amy: But we we sent a lot of, Stanley Tucci gifts.

Jen: Yeah, we sure did. I wish I sent one this very morning. You sure did. Oh, I was about to say what it said, but then I realized it might have devolved into, well, let’s just say PG 13 plus content, and we’ll do what we want. We’re grown. You know, I.

Amy: Mean, right, but we don’t want to talk.

Jen: About it. Right. But we will have a crush on our cast if we want to. Yeah.

Amy: So.

Jen: He is. I cannot wait for everybody listen to this. I told Amy right when we finished interviewing him. I’m like, I don’t know if this makes sense, but talking to him was just like talking to him. Meaning he’s exactly the lovely, charming, easy connective type of person we all think he is. Like, I’m like, yeah, there. You just were talking to us with your normal self.

Amy: Same on his shows. Same on the internet. Same on our screens.

Jen: Yes. That is a good word. So, we’re going to do a couple segments for. We bring him on. Okay. First one, culture shock.

Jen: In honor of Stanley. And talking about the culture. Food, because we’re primarily talking about his brand new book, which we’ll get to that in a minute, but it is centered around food. I want to ask you this question.

Amy: Okay.

Jen: I’m going to see if I think I know what you’re going to say. Let me think in my brain. Well, let’s find out. If you could only eat food from one country like one specific cuisine for the rest of your life, that’s all you get. What is it?

Amy: Do you want to guess?

Jen: Well, see, the thing is, the problem is because you’re like San Antonio and kind of like hill country type or I. There’s a tiny bit of me that. And you like beer? Makes me want to say German, but that’s to have to eat. It’s to just not it.

Amy: Right, right. Just Mexican.

Jen: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s the. That’s the second one.

Amy: Mexican. Except, interior.

Jen: Oh, like. Like what? Haha.

Amy: Yeah. We don’t need a lot of seafood. But, yeah, everything on the interior. And honestly, I feel like that’s cheating because Mexican food is. That can be all over the map.

Jen: Like, oh, yeah, that’s true.

Amy: For us, the through line is corn. We’re gluten free. So naturally. But also I mean tacos can be absolutely anything you can dream up.

Jen: If you can put it inside a tortilla it is a taco.

Amy: But I really do love like I love the vegetables. I love the beef. I saw my sister married into a Venezuelan and Mexican family. So I also do love Venezuela land food. And her father in law. It cooks like you just wouldn’t even believe.

Jen: For real.

Amy: I mean, I can feed 30 people. Oh like but zero notice. And it’s always.

Jen: Like people like that.

Amy: Three different homemade salsas are always in his back pocket. Yes I just I love it. It’s all delicious.

Jen: Okay. That’s a good answer. What’s yours? That’s a really good answer. And sometime we’re going to have to talk about the difference between like what we primarily experience here, which is Tex-Mex. And that’s its own.

Amy: That is a different cuisine.

Jen: Yeah. It’s it’s own thing. I will say that I love it. I’m here for it. But that’s also different okay. I would say that if I could only take one, one country, and that is where I must eat for the rest of my life. It would be Thailand. I give me all the Thai food, give it to me every day, give it to me all the times it hits everything.

Jen: Also, it’s a gluten free delight. Yes. Like rice noodles. Glass noodles like I noodles was the thing. Slash bread that I miss the most when I had to go gluten free. I love noodles. And then large innings was like, excuse me, ma’am, go get yourself a bowl of Thai food. And I was like, oh my God. Yes. Thank you for knowing about that.

Amy: Thai is our second go to our to eat. Like I would say, all Thai food except for the seafood.

Jen: Because you just don’t like seafood. Okay. Yeah, that’s interesting to me because you care about eating good things and seafood is the best thing.

Amy: I think my people long ago were at, like, have always been landlocked.

Jen: I see what you’re saying.

Amy: So it’s just not in my bones. But hey, Thai food.

Jen: Hits. Oh my God. Sweet. Spicy. Savory. Saucy. That’s it. Just I can’t panang curry. I just pad out all of it. There’s no there. I have no downside. So, you know, Sydney is in Thailand as we speak. As you and I sit here.

Amy: Yes.

Jen: And she’s been in Malaysia and she’s going to finish out her around the world tour in Vietnam. So it’s all like Southeast Asia. And she just sends me constant food pictures and I’m like this feels so mean. Oh and she’ll be like she’ll show me ten little bowls full of stuff in front of her. And she’s like, this was $4. And I’m like, I don’t want to be there. Anyway, Thai I will say if if I had to pick a second. Well, I mean, you can say my type. My second food would be Indian. I like it over there. I like that part of the world. They got it down for me like all those spices. Okay.

Jen: One more. Let’s do a rant or rave.

Jen: Part of Stanley’s new book is, well, not part of the center spoke of the wheel is what he ate in the ear. That’s the name of the book. What? I ate in a year, and it’s. So he’s eating really all around the world. So it also involves a lot of travel, as does his show searching for Italy. Which we were just talking about. So world travel. Rant or rave? Rant or rave. I’m going to put just a big banner over it and you can pick however you want. Travel. Rave rave, rave.

Amy: 100%. All of it good and bad. Yeah, but till my dying day.

Jen: Speak on it.

Amy: I just I actually didn’t grow up traveling very far. We went to New Mexico every summer. Every winter? Yep. Same visit. Family. That was it. But I got a job in my early 20s where I traveled for work. Oh, yeah. Like in the trade show industry. So New York, Chicago, San Francisco. And I was super nervous about it in the beginning. And then at some point, I just realized I can do what I want. I could fly in early and go see what I wanted to see. Like I didn’t have to go to. My coworkers were amazing, but I could not keep up with dinner out every night. And so I just started doing my own thing, really, in New York is where I started. Like I went ice skating at Rockefeller by myself.

Jen: That’s amazing. Like in your 20s.

Amy: And then I ate by myself for the very first time. Yeah. I couldn’t have imagined eating by myself.

Jen: Totally. I didn’t do that to my 40s.

Amy: And then I did that and I was like, what is the big deal?

Jen: You’re like, I love me. Oh, it’s not going crazy.

Amy: I get crazy, but I like doing what I want to do.

Jen: Yeah.

Amy: So yes, I just that’s good.

Jen: If, if under the umbrella of rave, which clearly travel is for me too. Do you have a tiny little baby rant? I mean, you’ve had enough. Some of your travel stuff’s weird and, some of it has gone sideways. And I know this, I know this.

Amy: I know you’re probably imagining, like, going sideways, meaning, like wild life encounters or.

Jen: Broken.

Amy: Arms. Danger, broken arms. All of that has.

Jen: I know.

Amy: But I think the most stressed I’ve.

Jen: Been.

Amy: And had to handle it on my own like no other grown ups was New York City just a couple of years ago.

Jen: Wait, I can’t think of this.

Amy: I well, I drove my kids and one of the girlfriends to new Jersey to stay with a friend for a couple of weeks. She had a rented house, in Ocean City. And while we were there, one day, I was like, New York’s only two hours away. Maybe I’ll just take all the kids by myself for one day.

Jen: Okay.

Amy: So I took my friends.

Jen: So you’re talking about all four sons, plus a girlfriend.

Amy: Plus my friend’s girls. Oh, so I had seven.

Jen: Days.

Amy: Kids, but, like.

Jen: And they’re all high school and middle school.

Amy: 12 to 20.

Jen: Yeah, probably. Yeah.

Amy: I planned it all out. I got the double decker bus pass. I parked in a parking garage. Okay. Like in Jersey city, you know, like. And then Port Authority took the train over. I had the whole thing planned out. That’s very. It was a it was a Wednesday. And then we got off the double decker bus. Yeah.

Amy: Because I thought it was. Hop on. Hop off. Sure, but it wasn’t.

Jen: It wasn’t that. So we. So you lost your ride is your point?

Amy: I bought all eight subway tickets on the jersey side with my debit card, and it flagged it for fraud because it was so many transactions.

Jen: They’re like what’s this bitch doing.

Amy: And I could not get my bank to like lift it. It was like the Port Authority flagged me. So then we were stuck, like we. I wanted to go to the met. Like I wanted to go to the park, or I wanted to see uptown. I promised them this whole day.

Jen: And those kids don’t have any money.

Amy: We walked a thousand miles to Times Square at our lunch. It was also really hot. That day was, August.

Jen: Oh, no. Anyway, ever time to be there.

Amy: I borrowed one of the kids debit cards, got us back on the subway, went to the met. It’s closed every Wednesday.

Jen: Oh, no. And the thing is, you love that place.

Amy: I love it.

Jen: Like, I my memory is going back ten years when I would go to New York and you’re like, I really don’t want to hear about your trip unless you go to the met. In which case, tell me everything. Like that’s your required stop.

Amy: But.

Jen: Closed on one.

Amy: Yeah. I didn’t go often enough to remember it was closed on Wednesday.

Jen: I’m curious. I have a question about this. This is a, compounded, stressful situation. We’ve got. We don’t have a bus anymore. We don’t have subway. My debit card is frozen. I’m hot. And we’re walking too far.

Amy: Yes.

Jen: I’m curious what you were then like. Like, how did this manifest in your, the way that you were behaving?

Amy: Panicky but not rage.

Jen: Oh, okay. But.

Amy: Because we were standing on the steps of the met already, I was like, just going to the park, like it’s shady. There’s cool grass. I borrowed someone else’s debit card or everybody of frozen lemonade, and we just laid in the grass under a tree for two hours.

Jen: Oh my gosh. This. Oh, you just regrouped? Yes.

Amy: But, like.

Jen: Well, 

Amy: Redeemed it. It was like we ended up spending so much time in the park. And then another kid’s debit card got us back on the subway.

Jen: Oh my gosh.

Amy: And I was like, we can’t go straight level. Like, once we’re in, we have to stay in. So we just.

Jen: Never. That’s it.

Amy: Like they wanted to see Grand Central Station. I talked about the ceiling, all that. I was like, sorry, we can’t go upstairs.

Jen: Sorry. We have to. We’re underground now.

Amy: In the bowels.

Jen: That’s right.

Amy: Oh, you made it home. It was fine, but I that’s the most sideways. I think something’s gone where there was another adult to fix it.

Jen: Where was your friend?

Amy: At home. Like she’s got littles. And so I just. Also, my car holds eight people. Yeah, I was the driver in seven kids.

Jen: So that was ambitious. And I would like to say foolish and I mean that nicely, but I.

Amy: Have a couple of kids who actually want to go back to the city someday.

Jen: Sure. They don’t understand that stress.

Amy: Others are like, that was enough for me.

Jen: Well, you know, I mean, you probably remember this, but maybe. Let me just do the math. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago, at least. I went with my family of origin to New York. My mom and dad, Andrew and Courtney. And that’s when Lindsey worked up there.

Amy: Lindsey was still.

Jen: There. She was there. She was at the restaurant, and we took an OG King trip to New York. As you know, Larry King has never been to New York. This isn’t his jam. And, neither had my brother and I remember Drew’s saying, I’m just. I’m going to where it was Christmas. It was December, so it’s magical. And he’s like, I’m like, it’s cold. That when whips down the streets, it’s hard to explain, but it gets really cold. You’re going to want to scarf. He’s like, not wearing a scarf. He’s like, I’m like a dude and I’m not wearing a scarf. And we’re like, well, you’re dumb. We had been there. I’m going to say, four minutes outside of our hotel, walk into our first thing. And he was like, my neck is so great. I’m like, dude, idiot. So, you know, he buys the first one off a street vendor. And then also because he didn’t listen to us, he was like, I’m going to wear my, my cowboy boots. I’m like buddy it’s a marathon a day like I, it’s hard to explain to you how much we’re walking. He’s like no they’re comfortable. I’m like, no, no. Cowboy boots are as comfortable as New Balance tennis shoes. Let me. I just cannot please believe me. Know that. Also.

Amy: Your feet get so cold. So cowboy boots.

Jen: So cold. That was the worst shoe that could have been ever packed. That’s what he had. So he got to walk around on swollen, cold feet for four days. But anyway, my point is, I don’t know if I had one, but at the end of the trip, of course. December in New York. How quickly can I move here?

Jen: You know, I’m I’m a completely enamored. We did all the things and my dad is like. So I think for me, it would be okay if I never come here again. That’s true too. He’s like, I’ve had enough. So anyway, New York, either you love that level of kind of chaos and stimulation or you absolutely do not. And the men in my family are an absolutely do not category.

Jen: Okay, let’s get to it.

Amy: Okay.

Jen: Let’s get to it. We’ve we’ve made them way to one. Let’s talk about Stanley Tucci today. You guys. Stanley Tucci, just in case you just I don’t know. You’ve been missing for a couple of decades. So he’s not just an actor like Stanley is a very multi-talented. He is a writer. He is a producer. He is a director. He is a food guy. Like a big time culinary like savant. Stanley has directed five films. He’s appeared in over 77 zero. Wow. I know tons of shows and plays under his belt. He has two Golden Globes, six Emmys, an Academy, a nomination for an Academy Award, a Tony. Like, he’s there’s he’s won all the awards that there are. There aren’t any left. He has them all. And so today specifically, we are going to talk about Stanley’s new book, which is coming out right now, and it is called what I Ate in One year and Related Thoughts. And it’s exactly what you think he is writing through a year in his life, all the places that he ate like, which is everything from a film set to another country to his own kitchen and everything in between who he ate with, what he ate. And so it really is kind of the story of a of a year. But with food as the center point of the story, I which I absolutely love that, structure. So it’s very memoir and it’s got some recipes in there. It’s a beautiful writing. I mean, if you can think of Stanley Tucci, I like the way he talks and the way he is. That’s also the way he writes. And so it’s just a delight, to be honest with you. But it also includes, like some real life stuff. He’s got lost in there. He talks about the role essentially food plays in our hardest moments, like in our grief. And, as we’re aging. So it’s it’s real. It’s real. It’s all in there. You’re going to love it. Of course. It is a follow up to his last bestseller, which was called Taste My Life Through Food. We loved it. We love him. We love hearing him talk about the process, his stories, his people, his places. He is so charming that it’s done. And you’ll. I mean, come on.

Amy: They’ll see.

Jen: We need to add nothing to Stanley Tucci. Like, don’t touch. Just put him on a shelf. Preserve him for posterity. He cannot be improved upon. And so with that grab your favorite cup of tea or whatever it is that you enjoy. Maybe in honor of Stanley, a beautiful glass of Italian red wine. And enjoy this conversation with me and with Amy and the incomparable Stanley Tucci.

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