Stanley Tucci has always loved food, especially Italian cuisine.

In his new memoir, he chronicles 12 months of meals on film sets (including Conclave in Italy), at home, on trips and elsewhere.

“In writing this account of the dishes I’ve eaten, cooked and shared with my friends and family over the course of a year, I wanted to pay tribute to the central role food plays in my life and also recognize its power to it shapes who we are and how it connects us,” says the author.

Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from the stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to the marinara sauce he cooks between rehearsals and the homemade pizza he eats with his children before bed, the book’s synopsis says “What I Ate in One Year”.

Whether it’s duck with orange that he eats with fellow actors and cooked by nuns of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel while they sing, steaks grilled on the barbecue at a gathering with friends, meatballs made by his mother and son and served at the table of three generations of his family, these meals give form and richness to his days, it is noted.

Through food, Stanley Tucci marks and mourns the passage of time, the loss of loved ones, and arms himself for what’s to come.

“I’m a soup lover. For me soup may be the greatest culinary invention. It can be made with two ingredients or two hundred and twenty two ingredients. It can be served hot or cold. It can be cooked quickly or slowly. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be vegetarian, vegan, paleo, pescatarian or with meat. It can be simple or complex. It relieves, soothes, revitalizes and contributes. Soup is life in a pot,” emphasizes the author.

Stanley Tucci is an actor, writer, screenwriter, director and producer. He has directed five films and appeared in more than seventy, as well as countless television shows and a dozen plays. He has been nominated for an Oscar, Tony and Grammy and has won two Golden Globes and six Emmys. He wrote and directed the film Big Night, about two brothers who run a failing restaurant, and is the host of the three-time Emmy-winning travel and food show Searching for Italy. He is the author of Taste: My Life Through Food and two cookbooks, The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook.

The book ‘What I Ate in One Year’: (and related thoughts) is published by Penguin Books Ltd.