Hi. It's Michelle, and her dad, Tom.
We are foodies!! We both love great food. We love to eat it ... and for most of our lives, we wished that we could make it. We've watched thousands of hours of the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. We've studied YouTube videos posted by many professional chefs. We enjoyed great food movies like Chef, Julie & Julia, Ratatouille, and Big Night. We bought all the best culinary equipment, thinking it might somehow (through osmosis perhaps) make us as skilled and competent as we wished we could be. But we never took that fateful step, to really learn about cooking, in earnest.
We finally decided that the only way to make our shared dream come true was to jump in, immerse ourselves fully in the process ... and through hands-on experience, become proficient in the art of cooking. We would be learning by doing in a family bonding experience of the most delicious kind.
Among the plethora of cookbooks that we collected over the years are two that we particularly like ... The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table. These books are well written, feature both contemporary and traditional dishes, and are the work of Stanley Tucci, whom we respect and admire, both as a gourmet and as an actor.
(Courtesy Simon & Schuster YouTube Channel)
Tucci's approach, to both life and cooking, is characterized by thoughtfulness, humility, and quiet sophistication. In the kitchen, working with his recipes, we can't help but appreciate the spirit and decency of the man. We are grateful for his books and hope that he would appreciate the sincerity with which we share his work.
This blog is a weekly chronicle of our formidable and delicious journey to cook virtually every recipe in Stanley Tucci's two cookbooks. It is with great anticipation that we begin this quest to develop our culinary skills ... eat some terrific food ... and share our learning experience with you.
Buon appetito!!
Michelle and Tom