With 2025 now officially here, King Charles is set to tuck into a delicious menu on New Year’s Day curated by Hollywood icon Stanley Tucci – and it showcases ‘incredible British produce’
Just hours after the UK joyfully rings in the new year, King Charles will be sitting down to enjoy another key staple of the royal calendar, as he and Queen Camilla enjoy their annual New Year celebration at his Gloucestershire home, Highgrove House. Yet this year the couple will be welcoming a touch of Hollywood into their home, thanks to the assistance of Hunger Games and Devil Wears Prada actor Stanley Tucci.
The seasoned actor, who himself is also an accomplished cook, was specifically asked to asked to curate a very special menu for a dinner celebrating Anglo-Italian relations – with the request coming from King Charles himself.
Speaking to The Telegraph about the honour, Stanley told the publication: “Now, OK, I won’t actually be in the kitchen, cooking for him, but the Italian ambassador came to me and said, ‘I want to do a meal, and Charles would like you to participate’, so I’ve been coming up with the menu.”
Although the full menu has yet to be disclosed, the publication went on to report that the entire menu would revolve around the theme of “slow food and fashion” and featured an assortment of delicious foods such as roast pork, kale and squash with the actor adding: “”all of that nice, wintry, heavier stuff.”
Stanley also added that the meal would “showcase all of this incredible British produce.”
Speaking of the King’s decision to eating seasonally – before it was trendy to do so – he added, “[King] Charles was into that way before anyone else. He was way ahead of his time.”
Although an actor by trade, Stanley Tucci is a proud foodie, and regularly shares his love of food on social media alongside recipes and his culinary triumphs. He also saw the release of his own show, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, in which he went from Milan to Venice on the hunt for local delicacies.
As for the actual work in the kitchen, that will be undertaken by famed Calabrian chef Francesco Mazzei, one of the leading Italian chefs in the United Kingdom – a fitting start to 2025, as the royal couple are reportedly set to visit Italy in 2025 following the success of their Australia tour at the end of 2024.
