Big Night and my 25-year love affair with Italy’s food culture

25 years ago, the film Big Night came out — a love letter from Stanley Tucci to Italian cuisine and a culture obsessed with eating and preparing good food. It’s the ultimate food porn film, with scenes showing the preparation of incredibly elaborate Italian dishes (like the mouth-watering timpano, a multi-layered savory pastry whose presentation is one of the film’s climaxes), as well as the simplest dishes, like a basic frittata (omelette), which Tucci’s character Secondo prepares in the wordless closing scene of the film. The soundtrack, filled…