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Stanley Tucci is opening up about why he’s turned down offers to appear on a number of cooking shows
“To me, cooking is the opposite of that. It should be a thing that brings people together, not separates them,” the actor said of food competition series
His travel and food series, Tucci in Italy, is set to return on May 11
Stanley Tucci says he’s had plenty of offers to appear on a number of cooking shows — but he’s turned them all down.
Speaking with Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on Tuesday, May 5, Tucci, 65, reflected on his choice to opt out of lots of food competition shows over the years while discussing his travel and food series, Tucci in Italy.
“I don’t like competition when it comes to art or food,” Tucci explained with a laugh. “I think it’s silly. I know they’re hugely successful, but I just find it false and weird.”
He continued: “To me, cooking is the opposite of that. It should be a thing that brings people together, not separates them. A thing that allows for communion, not for competition,” he added.
Stanly Tucci for his National Geographic show ‘Tucci in Italy’.
Credit: National Geographic
The Devil Wears Prada 2star added that he finds competition in the arts “strange” in general, arguing that all art is “completely subjective.”
“I mean, it’s wonderful when you get nominated for stuff. It’s wonderful when you get an award, but do I really believe … You know, because my dad was an art teacher, and he always said, ‘How am I supposed to grade this and this, and this?'” he shared, referring to his father, Stanley Tucci Sr.
“They’re all different people, and they’re all different perceptions of what they’re seeing. It’s completely subjective. So, how do you grade that? How do you say, ‘You’re the best actor?’ Doesn’t make any sense,” he added.
The upcoming second season of Tucci’s National Geographic travel and food series will see the actor visit five new regions across Italy — Naples and Campania, Sicily, Le Marche, Sardinia, and Veneto — as he continues “to trace the link between Italy’s historical landscape and its culinary traditions,” according to a synopsis.
“It’s been incredible. I always loved it,” Tucci told Horowitz of visiting Italy again. “I lived there. I lived in Florence when I was 12, 13 [in] 1973 — it was just incredible. You know, coming from Westchester, New York, I’d never been on a plane before.”
Tucci in his National Geographic show ‘Tucci in Italy’.
Credit: National Geographic
“It was life changing and that, without question, informed how I saw the world and what kind of world I wanted to live in,” he adds. “I realized as I got older and I traveled to Europe that I felt more comfortable in Europe than I did living in America. …There is something truly — I hate to use the word, but magical about Italy, and those people who have survived countless invasions, countless corrupt inept governments and yet they persevere.”
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In season 2, Tucci is also set to visit Le Marche, a lesser-known destination located in central Italy along the Adriatic coast; Naples, where “he celebrates a once-forgotten vine grape;” and Veneto, where tiramisù is said to have been invented by the wife of a Treviso-based restaurant owner in 1969.
“In Italy, food is never just food. It’s memory, identity and, sometimes, a full-blown argument,” Tucci said of the experience of connecting food with culture in the country.
While speaking to PEOPLE in May 2025 about the series, he explained that “the one thing about Italy that is really interesting — and it’s not something that we have, really, in America much anymore — is that each region, and each part of each region, will use ingredients that are indigenous specifically to them.”
Tucci in Italy, National Geographic’s Emmy-nominated series, will return with season 2 on the network starting May 11 at 9 p.m. ET. All episodes will be available to stream May 12 on Disney+ and Hulu.
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