Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci tells Katherine MacAlister about new films he is working on and his passion for food

You would expect Stanley Tucci to be discussing his varied movie career, his life in Hollywood, or his roles in films such as The Lovely Bones, The Devil Wears Prada and The Hunger Games at the Oxford Literary Festival tomorrow.

But then you’d be wrong.

Because the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor, is actually coming to town to talk about food, his other main passion, and to discuss his new cookbook The Tucci Table, co-written with his British wife, Felicity Blunt, sister of British actress Emily Blunt, whom he married in 2012 and has moved to London with.

So do food and love go hand in hand? “Without question!” he beams.

And yet having grown up in an Italian-American household in New York, he must struggle with British food: “I like a full English. I like a cuppa – without milk. I prefer American baked beans. Marmite is despicable. Everything else is fantastic,” he says. “But I was raised believing that food was not only essential for existence but something to be celebrated. Put it this way, I got the cooking bug from my parents.”

Describing his style as “simple, straightforward and quasi-improvisational,” Stanley’s main food influences include Keith Floyd, Tom Kerridge, Rick Stein and Gennaro Contaldo, with his signature dish being paella.

So what would his last supper be? “Oysters from the Irish coast or Cornwall. Sipsmith vodka martini. Puntarelle salad. Steamed lobster from Maine. Pasta with bottarga. Fennel, radicchio and orange salad or dinner at Riva in Barnes.”

With recipes in his book including mushroom-stuffed trout, pork chops with onions and mustard sauce, and barbeque chicken wings, Stanley admits that the strangest food he’s ever eaten is smoked puffin.

But enough about food. What’s Stanley up to? “I’m working on a sci-fi thriller called Patient Zero and then I will direct a film that I wrote about the artist Alberto Giacometti,” he tells me.

With 70 films under his belt, doesn’t he need a rest? “No, actors can be in three movies a year but depending on the size of the role you might only work a week on each film,” he explains.

So has he ever been out of work? “Many, many, many, many, many, many, times! I lived on five dollars a day in New York in the early 1980s and lived on pasta, beans and coffee shops. Take-aways were too expensive!”

In the meantime Stanley’s been cooking away. Does he have any ambitions to be a chef? “As I get older, yes, I do. But the amount of training I would need would probably take the rest of my life!” he laments.

Instead, the 54-year-old is settling for writing his cookbook, and coming to Oxford to tell us about it. So is he looking forward to it? “Of course I am and although I don’t know Oxford well, the boat race goes past my house.

“I’ve never felt more comfortable in a place than I do in London, although I’m still struggling with the language,” he jokes before ambling back to his kitchen, no doubt to practise a few more dishes before the big day.

SEE IT
The Tucci Table: Cooking with Family and Friends with Tastings tomorrow at noon is SOLD OUT