With his recent hit culinary quest show, “Searching for Italy,” and food-focused cult films such as 1996’s “Big Night” and 2009’s “Julie & Julia,” Stanley Tucci has established himself as not just an actor but also a serious epicurean. But, in his new memoir, “Taste: My Life Through Food” (Gallery Books), the 60-year-old reveals that he almost lost his love for food after he was diagnosed with an oral cancer four years ago. 

“There were times when I believed I would never ever be able to cook or enjoy a meal again with the people I love,” writes Tucci, who grew up in a large Italian family in Katonah, NY, and spent a year living in Italy in his early teens. When a dentist first told Tucci that the pain in his mouth might be due to an oral cancer of some sort, he writes that he “was stunned to the point of almost fainting.”