Stanley Tucci's children eat "like Fagin is their father".

The 61-year-old actor - who has Matteo, seven, and Emilia, four, with his wife Felicity Blunt - admits that his kids are conservative eaters.

During an appearance on the 'Dish' podcast, Stanley quipped: "My kids should be such great adventurous eaters and they're not.

"We've raised them completely wrong. They're lovely people, but we've been really bad about that."

The Hollywood star - who also has Isabel, 22, Nicolo, 22, and Camilla, 20, with his first wife Kate - jokingly compared himself to Fagin, the fictional character from CHARLES DICKENS' 'Oliver Twist'.

He said: "So, you make the same five f****** things every week, and you’re like, really? 'I want my sausages.' All right, you know, have sausages.

"And then it's like, 'Would you like to try some mashed potatoes?' Who doesn't like mashed potato? I mean, they have a diet like Fagin is their father."

Stanley has enjoyed huge success with 'Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy', his travel and food show on CNN.

And the actor previously explained that his love of food can be traced back to his Italian-American roots.

He shared: "I grew up in Westchester County - Katonah, New York, about 50 miles north of the city. And my parents were both Italian-American, and their parents had come from Italy. And they were all great cooks. And so I grew up with really, really amazing food, but not only just the food, but it was also the sort of enthusiasm for food and the interest in food.

"Everything revolved around what you were going to eat that night, what you were eating for lunch, what you ... so it couldn't help but become a huge part of who I am."