Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy review – pasta porn
Stanley Tucci eats his way round Italy in a food travelogue you’ll be glad you watched and that’ll leave you starving. Here’s where to stream it in the UK, plus how to cook along.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 25 October 2026
Contents
There are two kinds of men aged 45 to 64 in Britain. Some of us think a jar of pesto counts as cooking, and the rest are lying. Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is for both, and it comes with a warning: don’t watch it hungry, and definitely don’t watch it at 10pm with only a Ryvita in the cupboard.
The idea is about as simple as telly gets. A very well-dressed man goes to Italy and eats things. Done well, though, simple turns out to be very hard to pull off, and Tucci makes it look effortless.
Premiere2021-02-14
GenreReality, Documentary
CastStanley Tucci
Seasons2 seasons · 14 episodes
ChannelCNN
Watch onChannel 4, U, Prime Video
71%
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A man, a fork and a very large country
Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to dig into the secrets and pleasures of its regional food. Each hour-long episode covers a different region, so you’ll see that Italian food isn’t one cuisine. It’s dozens of fiercely defended local traditions, and each one thinks the others are doing it wrong. The opening episode starts in Campania, with the noise and chaos of Naples, the Amalfi coast and the island of Ischia. You can work out the rest yourself: pasta, lemons, very old men making cheese and Tucci nodding along to all of it.
There’s no competition, no countdown clock and nobody crying over a collapsed soufflé. It’s a documentary in the old-fashioned sense: someone curious goes somewhere interesting and asks questions. On paper that sounds slight, but in practice it’s more relaxing than most of the stuff your doctor recommends.
The Tucci factor
The whole show rests on Tucci, and he carries it easily. Made for the American news network CNN, it first went out in the US in February 2021 and ran for two seasons and 14 episodes. Tucci is the only regular face, and that’s all it needs. He’s warm without being sickly and knowledgeable without showing off. Apparently he’s also unable to look scruffy, even when he’s sweating in a Sicilian kitchen. Most of us can’t manage that in Tesco.
The best moments come when he shuts up and lets the cooks, farmers and fishermen talk. He’s a good listener, which is rare among celebrity presenters. He seems to care more about the person making the carbonara than about getting his face in shot.
Most food TV wants you to admire the chef. This one just wants you to book a flight and phone your mum.
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What works, and what doesn’t
The food photography is shameless, and I say that as praise. The scenery does half the work, and Tucci’s love of the place does the rest. As a reminder that Italians take lunch more seriously than we take most of our careers, it’s hard to beat.
Now the downsides. It can feel like a very expensive tourist board advert. Tucci is never short of a perfect table on a perfect terrace, and the show doesn’t dwell much on Italy’s less photogenic side. If you want hard-hitting reporting, look elsewhere. If you want to feel briefly that life could be better, with more olive oil, you’re in the right place.
What the critics said
Critics loved it, mostly. When it reached British screens on BBC Two in early 2022, Lucy Mangan in the Guardian called it “a sweet, light delight of a documentary”. She also teased that Tucci is so charming viewers may struggle to cope. That just about sums up the reaction. Nobody claims it’s groundbreaking, but almost everyone seems to have enjoyed spending an hour with it.
Where to watch it in the UK, and how to eat along
After its BBC Two run, it’s now listed on Channel 4’s streaming service, UKTV’s free service U and Prime Video. What’s on offer and whether it’s free or paid can change, so check before you settle in with a bowl of something.
You don’t need a plane ticket to join in. A decent Sainsbury’s or Waitrose will get you most of the way: good bronze-die dried pasta, a proper block of Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino, unwaxed lemons and pancetta if you can’t find guanciale. With those you can do a passable cacio e pepe or a carbonara without cream. Leave the cream out, or Tucci will somehow know. Buy good tinned tomatoes and good olive oil, then cook slowly. That’s about as much as the show teaches about technique, and it’s enough.
If the show has done its job and you want the real thing, Naples and the south can be very cheap from a lot of UK regional airports outside the summer holidays. Go in spring or autumn, skip the restaurants by the sea, and eat wherever the locals are queuing. Tucci would approve. Your waistline probably won’t.
Verdict
Searching for Italy is lovely, unhurried TV. It’s more holiday than hard reporting, and that’s exactly what makes it appealing. Tucci is the perfect guide and the food is outrageous. Expect the urge to cook properly for once to last at least a week. It’s ideal for anyone who loves Italian food, misses travelling or just wants an hour of telly where nothing goes wrong except your diet.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
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