Movie-star topic archive

#RegionalItalianFood

Movie stars whose food stories lead to the distinct cooking of Campania, Calabria, Umbria, Liguria, Tuscany and Sicily.

6 profiles in this archive

Profiles and food stories

Stanley Tucci

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

Full profile and clips →

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

Monica Bellucci

Full profile and clips →

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

Full profile and clips →

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

Full profile and clips →

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

Luca Guadagnino

Full profile and clips →

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.