Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

I loved each episode, colorful, good photography, Tucci is charming and delightful with a certain honesty you can respect, bring on season two, I'm ready.

Tucci takes you on a real deal tour of Italian cooking and ingredients and it's people and culture that is sparkling and fresh. He visits the cuisine of the poor and the rich, of the establishment masters and the young rebels. Unlike shows with an obnoxious UK host overplaying his own part, Tucci being Italian the show has a sweet, refined Italian hospitality and grace to it that is a great addition to the whole process. I moved to Italy 17 years ago after marrying an Italian from Bologna and we both think this is a great culinary adventure series. It is emotional and quite revealing.

Already fell in love with the first two episodes. The series is unlike any other travel or food show. I love Tucci's approach: classic regional foods and the social structures surrounding them. He and the people he meets reflect upon the food and their regions with joy, great pride, and that bittersweet blend of affection and wistfulness that each of us has for a home that has endured through decades (or millennia) of change, gentrification, and resilience. I can't wait for more.

I have been to Italy on a personal trip (with an Italian-Canadian chef of all people!) and what they are showing is spot on. We've been to Naples, from Formia going through the region where they make the mozzarella di bufala, and that's exactly the feeling we had. The exceptional link to the land, the narrow streets of Naples, which felt like Rome's punk sister - an exceptional city on its own, being in the shadow of the Vesuvius ... and the food! Great, great work, and excellent host. Good to showcase the locals - and keeping it in the original Italian... get use to subtitles, that what makes it so authentic! Looking forward to the remaining episodes, hope Lazio will be in there.

I absolutely love this series, and being narrated and hosted by Stanley Tucci is even more wonderful than anything I've ever watched in this genre of real local cuisine. He has a graceful persona that just captivates the story of the food as if you are experiencing the flavors, freshness and textures with him. The scenery is always beautiful and the stories of the people just warms my soul. I hope he continues his travels and shares these amazing experiences for those who can't visit Italy. I am definitely searching for these recipes to try at home!