“For actor Stanley Tucci, food isn’t just sustenance; it’s also a way to connect to his roots — to the backyard gardens of his Southern Italian ancestors, to the basement kitchen where his grandmother plucked chickens, to the delicious Sunday meals of his childhood.

“”[Growing up,] everything revolved around what you were going to eat that night, what you were eating for lunch,” he says. “I’m not a religious person, but if there is one thing that’s holy, it would be food.”

“But three years ago, Tucci was diagnosed with oral cancer, and the cancer and its treatment nearly robbed him of his ability to enjoy food. He lost his sense of taste and smell, and his mouth became so ulcerous that he was on a feeding tube for six months.”

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