Stanley Tucci and Maya Ghazal on-set at Buzzfeed's Proper Tasty offices
© A Bonello/ProperTasty

About Stanley

Stanley Tucci is a food lover and author of 2 cookbooks. This World Refugee Day, Stanley and UNHCR have teamed up with Buzzfeed Proper Tasty to explore the central role that food plays in all of our life journeys, especially for refugees. For those that have been forced to flee their homes and have lost everything food, at its most basic, is often about survival, but it’s also so much more. Our sense of family and memory, rituals and celebration, sharing and understanding, integration and belonging is often closely linked to food, cooking and eating.

“I’ve always had a passion for food and my cooking has always included influences from my own journey - from my ancestral roots in Southern Italy, my home country of America (my city New York, New York!), and my adoptive city of London. 

This World Refugee Day I’ve been thinking about the journeys refugees make, often in turmoil and panic. I’ve been cooking with the remarkable Maya Ghazal and learning about her refugee journey through one of her Grandmother’s favourite recipes from Syria. I’ve also cooked a recipe that means something special to me and that I would want pass down to my children if we were ever in the situation where we were forced to flee our home. 

This World Refugee Day communities, schools, businesses, faith groups and people from all walks of life are taking big and small steps in solidarity with refugees. You can too. Step With Refugees”.

Stanley and UNHCR:

Actor, writer, producer, and film director, Stanley Tucci, has been supporting UNHCR since 2017. 

Stanley has attended and initiated fundraising activities and supported advocacy initiatives including the #WithRefugees Campaign through performing the poem What They Took With Them alongside fellow UNHCR Supporters, Goodwill Ambassadors and actors including Cate Blanchett, Neil Gaiman, Douglas Booth, Peter Capaldi, Keira Knightley and Kit Harrington.