Stanley Tucci says throat cancer left him unable to eat two specific foods
Topics: Celebrity, Food and Drink, Health, US News
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Food and Drink, Health, US News
He might be a world-renowned foodie, but a heartbreaking health scare left actor Stanley Tucci unable to consume two very specific meals.
The much-loved American actor first turned his attention from the red carpet to the kitchen back in 2012, when he released his debut titular cookbook, which just so happened to become a global best-seller.
The years that followed saw Tucci, 65, lean passionately into his family's Italian roots, exploring global food landscapes through delicious documentaries, and releasing a further three recipe books - one with his beloved wife, Felicity Blunt.
"When my parents are no longer alive, I will always be able to put their teachings and all the love they gave me into a bowl and present it to someone," he famously wrote in his 2021 work, Taste: My Life Through Food.
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"By eating that food, they will come to know them, if even just a little."
Sadly, however, within the last nine years, Tucci's fervency for flavour has been restricted somewhat by a major blow to his health.
In 2017, the Devil Wears Prada star was diagnosed with throat cancer after his physician discovered a tumour at the base of his tongue.
Thankfully, medics were quick to respond, and Tucci underwent both chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
By the end of the following year, the father-of-five was in remission, and he was told the tumour was unlikely to return.
Tragically, though, Tucci claims his experience left him battling scar tissue in his throat, which can make consuming two specific foods rather tricky.
The first, he told Sky News in a recent interview, is fruit, claiming he sometimes can't taste their sweet flavours as a result of his previously poor health.
"Fruit is hard," Tucci began. "Fruit will still taste weird to me. I don't know why."
In the clip, which quickly began circulating earlier this month, he also claimed he'd been unable to consume especially hot foods since receiving treatment.
"I can't eat any spice because this is so compromised, and you lose your saliva," the double Golden Globe-winner continued. "You lose the ability to swallow normally, because this is all scar tissue in here.
"So, you have to be very careful about what you eat."
The Conclave star previously provided further details on the painful cancer treatment he endured, telling the New York Times it left him relying on a breathing tube for six months.
"It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn’t necessarily swallow," he confessed, recalling one incident which occurred during filming for Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy in 2021.
The episode centred on Florentine steak, which Tucci claimed he struggled to consume so soon after his treatment.
"I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat," he recalled. Reflecting on other segments of the series, he claimed: "I just had to get rid of the food."
In the 2021 cookbook he released the same year, however, Tucci claimed his experience had helped him make a handful of realisations about mealtimes.
"My illness and the brutal side effects of the treatment caused me to realise that food was not just a huge part of my life," he penned. "It basically was my life.
"Food at once grounded me and took me to other places... It allowed me to express my love for the people I love."