Movie-star topic archive

#ItalianCocktails

The Negroni, limoncello, spritz and other Italian drinks tied to movie-star food stories and screen culture.

4 profiles in this archive

Profiles and food stories

Actor, author, and food travel host

Stanley Tucci is the actor who turned regional Italian cooking into appointment television, first with Big Night, then with his Italy travel series and the bestselling memoir Taste.

Regional connection
Calabrian roots, raised in Westchester, New York
Food on screen
The timpano in Big Night (1996) — a drum of pasta, egg and meat cut open at the table — is still the most requested Italian-American dish in film.

Why the food connection is credible

  • Co-wrote and co-directed Big Night, the film that made timpano famous
  • Wrote The Tucci Cookbook and the memoir Taste: My Life Through Food
  • Hosted a CNN travel series touring Italy region by region, then a follow-up series
  • Filmed a widely shared lockdown Negroni video that pushed the drink back into fashion

Actor and limoncello maker

Danny DeVito makes and sells his own limoncello, after falling for the Sorrento original.

Regional connection
Asbury Park, New Jersey; Italian-American family roots
Food on screen
His limoncello brand grew out of an on-air moment that turned into an actual product line.

Why the food connection is credible

  • Launched Danny DeVito's Premium Limoncello
  • One of the few celebrity drinks brands that Italians will argue about seriously

Actor and director

Roberto Benigni is Tuscany's loudest ambassador, and his riffs on Tuscan bread and wine are a genre of their own.

Regional connection
Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany
Food on screen
Life Is Beautiful (1997) put an Italian family table on the Oscars stage and turned a waiter's dining-room scenes into its emotional spine.

Why the food connection is credible

  • Tuscan-born, from a farming family
  • Life Is Beautiful builds much of its first act inside a restaurant dining room

Screen legend and cookbook author

Sophia Loren is a screen legend who also published cookbooks of Neapolitan home cooking drawn from her own life.

Regional connection
Naples and Pozzuoli, Campania
Food on screen
The pizza-frying scenes of L'Oro di Napoli (1954) made her the face of Neapolitan street food before she was a global star.

Why the food connection is credible

  • Author of In Cucina con Amore and Recipes & Memories
  • Built both books around Campanian home cooking and family stories, not restaurant technique
  • Famously credited spaghetti for everything she has

Latest food headlines

Related public clips

Contact Larry

Recipe questions, restaurant tips, gear ideas, press and collabs — send it here.