Searching for Italy episode 1 – Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines. Tucci comes prepared with a bottomless appetite for it all, showing us how the diversity of Italian cooking offers a gateway through which you can glimpse Italy’s history and culture.
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Naples is the third-largest city in Italy, but its history and beauty has been tainted with underdog status from close association with Vesuvius – the world’s most dangerous volcano, the Camorra – a notorious branch of the local mafia – and poverty.
In the historic Spanish quarter, Stanley meets professor Elisabetta Moro, who takes him to the last authentic fried pizza maker, Fernanda’s. Stanley embarks on a whirlwind tour to find the freshest mozzarella and the best San Marzano tomatoes with Enzo Coccia, the proud king of Neapolitan pizza, to learn the secret art of arguably the world’s best pizza. The local Roma population have joined forces with the Neapolitans, and Stanley samples their mouth-watering culinary fusions before continuing his journey to the island of Ischia and the beautiful Amalfi Coast to revisit some spectacular regional dishes.
Neapolitans have survived volcanoes, earthquakes, pandemics, war and poverty. In defiant life-affirming responses, they have given the world incredible dishes to be shared and enjoyed by billions.
Searching for Italy episode 1 – Naples and the Amalfi Coast
Stanley Tucci Jr. (/ˈtuːtʃi/ TOO-chee; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor, writer, producer, and former fashion model. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in Sea Of Thieves (1969), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in films such as John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor (1985), Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry (1997), Sam Mendes’s Road to Perdition (2002), and Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal (2004). In 1996, he made his directorial debut with the cult comedy Big Night which he also co-wrote and starred in alongside Tony Shalhoub.
He also played Stanley Kubrick in the television film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Tucci is also known for his collaborations with Meryl Streep in films such as The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Julie & Julia (2009). Tucci gained further acclaim and success with such films as Burlesque (2010), Easy A (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Margin Call (2011), The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015), Spotlight (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Supernova (2020).
He has won four Emmy Awards; one for Winchell (1998), one for a guest appearance on the comedy series Monk, one for being a producer of the web series Park Bench with Steve Buscemi and one for hosting and producing Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. Tucci was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Lovely Bones (2009). He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2003), and a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, for The One and Only Shrek! alongside Meryl Streep.
