If your local bottle shop is suddenly out of Campari, it’s probably Stanley Tucci’s fault. The actor/national treasure demonstrated the perfect Negroni mixing lesson yesterday on Instagram and now, suddenly everybody has forgotten they actually hate the bitter Milanese cocktail.
A far cry from his days as Nigel in the art department, Tucci is now an icon of a different sort: a culinary one. It was actually unknown to this editor (before yesterday) that he is the proud author of an incredibly wholesome/aesthetic cookbook, Tucci’s Table. His food mood could probably be best described as a male Nigella Lawson meets Alison Roman: a non-fussy approach, lots of herbs, rustic vine-ripened tomatoes and obviously, he’s easy on the eye.
The video, while slightly chaotic (vodka in a Negroni?!?!) has some pleasing qualities (the voice, the shaved head, the always perfect spectacles). He’s making it for his wife, Felicity Blunt, and even though he takes a few tax sips before he hands it over, you can feel the romance even though she’s out of frame.
Tucci also makes mixology look easy, adding sweet red vermouth, gin (or vodka) and Campari to a shaker with ice, before serving “up” (which means, according to Google, chilled but no ice) in a coupette and garnished with a “pre-sliced orange.”
The influx of support and admiration in the comments section is notable: Campari affectionately stated it was “made with style” while a fan declared the humble Negroni should henceforth be known as the “QuaranTucci.” Digital publisher Paper Magazine even went head to head with equally powerful publisher The Cut to propose battling it out over who loves Tucci more.
Social distancing might be sending us crazy but you can’t deny silver linings such as this. As Tucci says, Drink Up!
