CNN’s Searching for Italy, the weekly food-travel series with actor Stanley Tucci, visited Rome on Feb. 21st and Bologna on Feb. 28th. Although I considered the first episode, set in Naples, to be routine, the episodes on Rome and Bologna showed a wee uptick of interestingness (is that a word?).

Though this may sound perverse via a cable series set in spectacularly beautiful Italy, I listened more to Tucci’s voice-over narration and noticed two words being repeated in both episodes: “outsiders” and “working-class.” In Naples, Tucci highlighted the ultimate outsiders in that city: Eastern European gypsies. He also reminded viewers that Neapolitans themselves are considered outsiders in Italy, a proud, stubborn people who define their own space.

In Rome, the outsiders were Italian Jews, a Japanese immigrant-turned-restauranteur, and a young, tattooed female chef.

Italian Jews were featured for their culinary magic via the artichoke, linked to the history of the Jewish ghetto and the fate that befell their community in 1943: Mussolini was removed from power, the Nazis swarmed in, and 1,200 locals were shipped to concentration camps. Regrettably, probably due to time constraints, the episode never mentioned the bravery of both the Italian people and the Fascist government in hiding Jews before and after the Nazis took control. These acts led American journalist Dorothy Rabinowitz, in a 1993 article in the Wall Street Journal, to describe Italy as “a nation of Schindlers.”

The Japanese immigrant in the episode had moved to Rome, after being inspired by its cuisine, where he opened his own restaurant. Tucci observed him making cacio e pepe, one of the four major pastas beloved by Romans (the other three: gricia, carbonara, and amatriciana). Although Tucci had one of his Italian co-producers sample the pasta and declare it excellent, the chef related that Romans slowly began frequenting his restaurant less and less as time went on. Was the implication that i Romani are xenophobic? More likely, Romans are picky eaters and didn’t find the chef’s specialty – their specialty – up to par. Italians even boo opera singers on the stage at La Scala in the middle of a performance if they think the singer is slumming – or is just plain awful!

The female chef gave up a career in medicine to open up her own restaurant, where she specialized in what Tucci assured us was a Roman specialty: offal. Webster’s dictionary defines offal as “the entrails and internal organs of animals used as food.” In short, brains, intestines, stomach, etc. I can think of a similar sounding-word in Italian to describe such foods: “Uffa!” (Ugh!). I have no reason to doubt Tucci when he opines, “Trust me: It’s tasty!” Italians can do with food what African Americans can do with their voices or an instrument: make sweet music.

But Tucci’s concluding idea that Roman cuisine, like Neapolitan food, is essentially “working-class” in nature isn’t too far removed from Hollywood producers who view Italian American culture as endlessly working-class, too, and in the worst possible way (i.e., not very classy).

The outsider theme in Bologna (in the Emilia Romagna region) was touched upon via its profiling of Mattia Santori, the 32 year old co-founder of the 6,000 Sardine Movement, a grass-roots “flash mob” which drew an estimated 15,000 people to that city’s Piazza Maggiore in September, 2019. It was formed to counter-act former Deputy Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini’s appearance, whose controversial views on Italy’s lax immigration policies are abhorrent to the citizens of Bologna, a city nicknamed “La Rossa” for its long history of Communist politics. Tucci also profiled a local food bank, dispensing meals to African immigrants (‘they have good food here, the people give you a nice family feeling,’ said the woman).

Bologna also has two other nicknames: “La Grossa” (the Fat) and “La Dotta” (the learned, for its university, one of the first in the world). As for the latter, Tucci mentioned the thousands of university students merely in passing, but whose presence is crucial to the city’s energy. Might it not have been interesting to talk to some of them, and compare how Italian students eat via our own? It might also have made the idea of “educated Italians” a reality for most non-Italian viewers, rather than regurgitate (pun intended) the notion that Italy is a nation comprised largely of chefs and peasants.

But, Tucci got to the meat of things (second pun intended) via “La Grossa.” He seemed to be having a genuine good time delineating all of Bologna’s culinary treasures: tortellini, mortadella, and (Tucci’s favorite) prosciutto. Incidentally, the prosciutto episode mentioned a 2017 scandal involving the meat industry there, just as the Rome episode also highlighted the fire-bombing of a cafe in a gentrifying area of that city. Like the mentioning of the Camorra during the Naples episode, these two criminal stories seem – at least to this reviewer – a bit misplaced in a series allegedly dedicated to foodstuffs.

Finishing his episode in Bologna with a visit to the seaside town of Rimini, Tucci got the chance to pay homage to its famous son and one of his own favorite filmmakers: Federico Fellini. Finally, some world culture! Alas, he referenced Amarcord (1974), to my mind one of the filmmaker’s most over-rated and vulgar films, almost a self-parody of Fellini’s later surrealist style. (Sidenote: Fellini’s 1951 masterpiece, I Vitelloni (Fatted Calves), is a much more poignant and honest look at growing up in Rimini.) There was, however, a charming, much-too-short visit with Fellini’s niece, who explained to Tucci the history behind the invention of strazzapreti pasta (“priest-chokers”), and who related her uncle’s favorite soup when revisiting his hometown.

Toward the end, as with the Rome episode, Tucci pretty much called the food of Emilia-Romagna food-of-the-people, thus invoking the “working-class” motif one more time. It should be noted that Tucci’s companion earlier when he visited Modena was chef Massimo Bottura, renowned for his Michelin-honored Osteria Francescana, one of the finest in Italy. Bottura’s place serves anything but “working-class” food; it specializes in teeny-weeny portions, “artistically presented,” followed by gargantuan prices. Though Bottura’s place had been closed during the pandemic (Tucci and his crew arrived in Bologna as lockdown rules were being relaxed a bit), it’s too bad viewers couldn’t see a world-famous chef showing that Italian food does have true “class.” -BDC

Next week: Milano, aka the fashion capital of the world and the nation’s financial hub. Let’s hope Tucci “moves up in class,” to use the boxing lingo.