Stanley Tucci reflects on the dish he ate after cancer battle took a toll on his taste buds
Stanley Tucci is opening up about how his cancer battle three years ago affected his ability to enjoy one of his greatest passions -- food.
The 60-year-old actor, who previously revealed he was diagnosed with a tumor at the base of his tongue three years ago, opened up on "Good Morning America" Tuesday about undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.
Tucci said he lost his appetite and sense of taste during his fight with oral cancer, which "was devastating" as a food lover.
"I couldn't do surgery, the tumor was too long, but luckily it had not metastasized, so high-dose radiation and chemotherapy are the only things that can help and luckily the cure rate was very high," he explained. "I was unable to eat solid food for six months. I lost 30 pounds and my taste buds and saliva glands were destroyed as was the inside of my mouth and it's taken really three years to get back to almost normal."
He continued, "It's a small price to pay for being alive and being able to enjoy the company of my family."
Now in his new book, "Taste: My Life Through Food," which he called "mostly memoir, sort of peppered with recipes," takes readers back through his childhood through today, and "how food has played such a significant part in my life and work."
The award-winning actor revealed that despite having a feast of delicious school lunches, he would sometimes trade them.
"Only on occasion. I realized pretty quickly how amazing and lucky I was, my mother ... is an incredible cook and she's taught me so much, and having her food at night for dinner then having it again for lunch was amazing," he said. "But on occasion there was a friend of mine who used to have -- just fluffernutter sandwiches, and I would get a hankering and trade him some beautiful sandwich."
Now, classic dishes in his life are represented in this book, including on of his personal favorites, pasta fagiole, pasta and beans.
"This dish is actually something I lived on when I could start to eat solid food again," he said. "I lived on this dish for a very long time because I had to eat only very soft food. ... This is a classic dish but it's my iteration of that dish."
Check out his full recipe here.
The actor revealed in a New York Times interview that as he was shooting his show, "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy," his ability to swallow was affected.
"It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn't necessarily swallow," he explained.
In order to eat steak Florentina, "I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat," he added.
To comfort himself, Tucci admitted to binge-watching cooking shows, which he said he found "weird because even the smell of food then would just make me want to throw up."
But he said he would "live vicariously through them" so he could have the experience of enjoying food again.
Tucci previously said he is now in remission and his cancer is unlikely to return.
