18 December 2021

Stanley Tucci’s sense of taste is coming back “slowly but surely”.

Stanley Tucci at the Beauty and the Beast premiere

The 60-year-old actor recently explained he underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy three years ago after doctors discovered a tumour at the base of his tongue, and later claimed his treatment process made all food taste awful.

But now, Stanley is thankfully beginning to get his sense of taste back as his mouth is “regenerating and repairing”.

Speaking during an appearance on ‘The Graham Norton Show’, he said: “Everything tastes terrible for a long period of time. My mouth and throat were compromised by the way it was treated but I am fully recovered, and my sense of smell and taste have come back slowly but surely.

“My sense of taste is actually more acute now. Everything is regenerating and repairing. Your mouth is almost like a child’s and you’re experiencing everything anew.”

The ‘My Life Through Food’ author explained in October that all food tasted like wet cardboard “slathered with someone’s excrement” when he was undergoing cancer treatment.

Stanley said chemotherapy also caused him to develop vertigo and multiple ulcers in his mouth.

He said: “I mean, if you can’t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?

“It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn’t necessarily swallow.”

During his treatment, the ‘Supernova’ actor liked to “live vicariously” through watching cooking shows.

He admitted: “[It] was weird because even the smell of food then would just make me want to throw up.

“But I liked watching them. I just wanted to learn more, live vicariously through them. It was a way I was going to have that once again.”