Tucci introduces himself and his family: they, like many Italian-American families, “put great import on food,” and he praises his mother’s cooking in particular (1). He mentions his work on the film Big Night—in which two brothers try to save their failing restaurant and other endeavors that highlight his “love of food,” including charitable work and writing cookbooks (2). He ends with an appropriately corny (and fully acknowledged) pun: he hopes his readers find his pages “palatable” and warns them that there will be “[m]ore puns to follow” (2).

He then reproduces a discussion, structured like a mini-play, between his mother and himself as a young child. They are watching a TV cooking show (presumably Julia Child’s The French Chef) and discussing what young Stanley wants to eat now and what she will cook for dinner later.

Before diving into the memoir proper, Tucci also provides his readers with a quick recipe for a Negroni—an implicit allusion to his viral videos produced during the pandemic lockdown: “This past year I began a relationship with a Negroni and I am happy to say it’s going well” (8). Presumably, he wants his readers to begin his book relaxed and happy themselves.