Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Stanley Tucci visits the Veneto, once the center of a world-trading empire and home to the "Floating City," Venice. Stanley explores the ingenuity of the Venetians, who have embraced the unexpected delights and challenges of the lagoon, in addition to the produce of Veneto's fertile land. Veneto has a fascinating food culture due to its aquatic environment and the countless influences from around the world throughout its vast and storied history.  

In this episode, Stanley Tucci visits the region that made the dream of a unified Italy a reality. Piedmont boasts refined French heritage and precious peasant traditions. Once the engine room of Italian industrialization, Piedmont is now spearheading a slow food revolution. Between reimagined risotto and the elusive white truffle, Stanley will discover a region with an illustrious past but with its sights firmly set on the future.  

Stanley Tucci visits Umbria in this episode, nicknamed The Green Heart of Italy. While this small, predominantly rural region lives in the shadow of its more glamourous neighbor, Tuscany, Umbria has an ancient history that predates even the Romans. And, with the highest consumption of pork per capita, Umbria is a carnivore's dream. From wild boar hunts to incredible black truffle farms, Stanley will explore the riches this land offers while also questioning whether old traditions and centuries of religious orthodoxy prevent younger generations from breaking through.

Stanley sets out to explore how Italian immigration has transformed the food scene in his adopted hometown of London. Forget what you think you know about this city. London is a culinary mecca where Italian food from every region gets a chance to shine. The burrata is so creamy and the pasta is so fresh that it may rival Italy itself. For over a century, Italians here have found inventive ways to create Italian food so good it's enough to render Stanley speechless.

Calabria is a region of rugged landscapes, dramatic mountain ranges, and some 500 miles of incredible coastline. Connected to Basilicata in the north and separated from Sicily in the south by the narrow Strait of Messina, Calabria is also the homeland of the Tucci family's ancestors. In this episode, Stanley Tucci travels through the region, discovering the history of this beautiful and troubled place, as well as the history of his own family. Joined by his parents and reunited with Italian relatives, he reflects on the inspiration people draw from Calabria and why those who leave this region feel compelled to return. 

In this episode, Stanley Tucci visits the Italian island of Sardinia. Famous for its harsh, rugged landscape, crystal blue ocean, and passionately preserved traditions, Tucci will learn how Sardinian food culture varies wildly throughout the island. He experiences the culinary delights of its coastal cities influenced by previous civilizations and ventures inland to discover the rural heart of Sardinia, which remains untouched by outsider influence. This mysterious and mystical island is full of treasures, and Sardinians are proud of their heritage and culinary diversity. One thing is certain: whoever steps foot on this island will never want to leave.

In this episode, Stanley Tucci visits Puglia, a region famous for its fragrant olive oil, beautiful vegetables, cheeses, and durum wheat. Despite being such a fertile region, Puglia is also one of Italy's poorest, and Tucci discovers how today's spirit of innovation was forged out of hard times. From Bari's raw seafood to Cisternino's Fornelli and Foggia's burnt grain to cheesemaker Vito's Apulian blue cheeses, it is clear that by reclaiming their past, the Pugliese are taking ownership of their past and embracing the future on their own terms.

In this episode, Stanley Tucci visits one of the most famous and frequented regions of Italy – the Italian Riviera – which is famous for the glitz and glamour of Portofino and the stunning picture-perfect fishing villages of the Cinque Terre.  Liguria is a thin strip of mountainous land sandwiched between the Alps and Apennines and lined with rugged scenery and stunning coastal views. The capital of Genoa, once a wealthy merchant empire, offers a richness of cuisine fit for a prince, from personalized stamped pasta to its most internationally acclaimed export, Genoese pesto. Tucci will discover how Ligurians have learned to adapt to life in this difficult landscape and how they have found ingenious solutions to survive frugally yet thrive.