Movie-star topic archive

#ItalianCooking

Actors and directors connected to Italian cooking through cookbooks, regional recipes, farms, restaurants and memorable screen meals.

12 profiles in this archive

Profiles and food stories

Stanley Tucci

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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

Cook Spaghetti Carbonara Pour Negroni

Sophia Loren

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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

Cook Pizza Margherita Pour Limoncello Spritz

Robert De Niro

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Actor and restaurateur

Robert De Niro is one of the few actors who is a genuine restaurant operator, as co-founder of Nobu and Tribeca Grill.

Regional connection: Italian-American New York, with family roots in Molise and Campania
Food on screen: The prison kitchen in Goodfellas — razor-thin garlic, the tomatoes, the roast — is the food scene his fans quote most, even though the line is Paul Sorvino's.

Why the food connection is credible

Co-founded Nobu with chef Nobu Matsuhisa, now a global restaurant and hotel group
Co-founded Tribeca Grill in downtown Manhattan
Long-running involvement in the Tribeca neighborhood's restaurant scene

Cook Lasagna alla Bolognese Pour Americano

Al Pacino

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Actor

Al Pacino starred in the film that taught America how to cook Italian-American Sunday gravy — The Godfather.

Regional connection: East Harlem and the South Bronx, New York
Food on screen: Clemenza's sauce lesson in The Godfather (1972): fry garlic, throw in tomatoes and tomato paste, add sausage and meatballs, then a little wine and sugar. It is the most quoted cooking scene in film.

Why the food connection is credible

The Godfather's kitchen scenes shaped how a generation pictured Italian-American home cooking
The Godfather Part II opens its New York chapters around the family table

Cook Homemade Italian Sausage Pour Negroni Sbagliato

Monica Bellucci

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Actress

Monica Bellucci is an Umbrian actress who talks about olive oil, truffles and long family lunches whenever the subject turns to food.

Regional connection: Città di Castello, Umbria
Food on screen: Umbrian settings and tables run through her Italian-language work, and she returns to the region's cooking constantly in interviews.

Why the food connection is credible

Grew up in Umbria, a region defined by olive oil, black truffles and pork butchery
Speaks regularly about family lunches and regional produce rather than restaurant dining

Cook Pollo alla Cacciatora Pour Bicicletta

Giancarlo Giannini

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Actor

Giancarlo Giannini is a pillar of Italian cinema and a vocal defender of traditional Ligurian cooking.

Regional connection: La Spezia, Liguria
Food on screen: His Lina Wertmüller films put working-class Italian tables on screen long before food television existed.

Why the food connection is credible

Ligurian by birth, from the basil and olive oil coast
Frequently defends regional cooking and its ingredients in interviews

Cook Pesto alla Genovese Pour Aperol Spritz

Roberto Benigni

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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

Cook Bucatini all'Amatriciana Pour Negroni

Danny DeVito

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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

Cook Cannoli Siciliani Pour Limoncello Spritz

Marisa Tomei

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Actress

Marisa Tomei is a Brooklyn Italian-American actress whose roles keep landing at the family table.

Regional connection: Brooklyn, New York
Food on screen: My Cousin Vinny (1992) runs on kitchen and diner scenes as much as courtroom ones.

Why the food connection is credible

Brooklyn Italian-American upbringing
Repeatedly cast in films built around Italian-American family meals

Cook Chicken Parmigiana Pour Espresso Martini

Isabella Rossellini

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Actress and farmer

Isabella Rossellini runs Mama Farm on Long Island and talks about food as agriculture first, glamour second.

Regional connection: Rome by birth; Long Island, New York today
Food on screen: Her farming and animal-behaviour projects have become as public as her film work.

Why the food connection is credible

Runs Mama Farm, raising heritage breeds and producing eggs and honey
Studied animal behaviour and conservation
Speaks about biodiversity and heritage breeds rather than restaurant trends

Cook Spaghetti Carbonara Pour Garibaldi

Luca Guadagnino

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Director and designer

Luca Guadagnino makes films that eat well, and has a side career designing interiors, including restaurants.

Regional connection: Palermo, Sicily
Food on screen: Call Me by Your Name's apricots, soft-boiled eggs and Lombard summer table are the most copied food images in recent arthouse cinema.

Why the food connection is credible

Runs a design studio that has worked on hospitality and restaurant interiors in Italy
Builds meals into his films as structure rather than decoration

Cook Pasta alla Norma Pour Bellini

Michael Imperioli

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Actor and writer

Michael Imperioli starred in the show that made Sunday gravy, baked ziti and Vesuvio part of American food language.

Regional connection: Mount Vernon, New York; Italian-American
Food on screen: The Sopranos turned a New Jersey Italian-American restaurant into a recurring character, and its food is discussed as much as its plot.