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After the food is served at this New York restaurant, customers clap for the grandmother who cooked it. It’s not scripted, but it happens every night.
Run by women known as the “Nonnas of the World,” the Staten Island establishment pays as much homage to the people who work in the kitchen as it does to the places they hail from.
It’s become so popular that you can’t just walk in to eat. Reservations several weeks in advance are required to get a table.
There are about a dozen women who regularly cook at Enoteca Maria, a casual 30-seat Italian eatery. The menu is prepared and executed by a rotating group of international women, most of whom are matriarchs.
Among the nonnas — the Italian word for grandmothers — is Maria Gialanella, 88. She’s amassed such a following that some customers only come on nights they know she’s in the kitchen. She even has her own Instagram page.
Seeing strangers try their culinary creations makes them immensely pleased and proud.
“Everyone likes it, so I’m very happy,” said Gialanella, an Italian immigrant known for making ravioli by hand, rich ragus, soups and other family recipes she learned growing up near Naples .
Gialanella, who moved to the United States in 1961 and worked as a seamstress, said her daughter heard about Enoteca Maria 10 years ago and encouraged her to become a chef there.
“It’s nice with the other nonnas,” said Gialanella, who has six grandchildren. “I like every food.”
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Restaurant owner Joe Scaravella is a big fan.
“She’s not even five feet tall, but she’s a powerhouse,” said Scaravella, who opened the eatery in 2007. “She goes around and takes selfies. She spends the night hugging people.”
Initially you had to be an Italian grandmother like Gialanella to get into the kitchen, but about nine years ago, Scaravella decided to broaden the cooking criteria.
“They just have to be women who can advance their culture,” he explained, adding that the chefs — who are all called “Nonna” by diners regardless of their background — range in age from 50 to 90 and have a deep personality Knowledge of their culture’s unique cuisine. While most are grandmothers, some are not.
The Nonnas come from all over the world: Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Puerto Rico, Italy, Germany, Greece, Poland, Armenia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago. The list goes on.
Yumi Komatsudaira cooks traditional Japanese cuisine at Enoteca Maria. Although she has no grandchildren, her name is of course nonna. The name pleases her.
“Everyone is so friendly there, it’s like a family feeling,” says Komatsudaira, who is in her 50s and has a 17-year-old son.
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She specializes in traditional Japanese delicacies such as dumplings, dengaku (made from vegetables and miso), and endless noodle concoctions from savory to sweet.
In the beginning, the restaurant only served Italian dishes – to reflect the Scaravella’s roots. He opened the restaurant after losing several family members including his grandmother and mother, both born in Italy, and his sister. They were all excellent cooks, he said.
“The real story behind this place is grief — my personal grief after losing many of my family members and trying to recreate them,” said Scaravella, 67, whose long gray beard and small oval-shaped glasses make him instantly recognizable in St. George Quarter. “That was what drove everything.”
At the time, Scaravella had worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for more than 17 years and had no experience running a restaurant — let alone working in one.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “No business plan or anything.”
On a whim, he used the money his mother Maria had left behind to buy a vacant storefront and decided to name his new restaurant after her. There’s a clear connection, he said, between food and family.
Scaravella wanted his restaurant to serve the traditional Italian classics he was desperately missing. It was the women in his family who dominated the kitchen.
“There were a lot of ladies at home who had all this information,” Scaravella said. For example, his mother and grandmother knew “the secret of a good meatball” and “how to recycle stale bread”.
“All my life I never wanted to go to an Italian restaurant because it just never hit the mark,” he continued. “These ladies, they are the source. They are the ships relaying this information.”
With his own matriarchs gone, Scaravella went in search of Nonnas who could prepare authentic, warming meals. He knew they wouldn’t replace his family, but he thought maybe their food could help fill the gap.
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Before the restaurant opened, Scaravella placed an ad in the local Italian-American newspaper, looking for Nonnas who could prepare regional dishes from different parts of Italy. He was overwhelmed by the answer.
“I invited these ladies to my house. They came with dinner plates,” Scaravella said. “That was really where the idea was born.”
From there, he opened the doors of Enoteca Maria and stocked the kitchen with real nonnas who prepared everything from lasagna to chicken cacciatore. The concept, Scaravella said, was intended to emulate the experience of going to his nonna’s house for dinner.
“There’s a sense of security in general when you go to your grandmother’s house,” he explained. “It’s a powerful memory and it’s very comforting, and I just really needed some comfort.”
The restaurant has developed rapidly. A few years later, Scaravella began inviting grandmothers from other cultures to cook their classics in his kitchen, and things got even busier.
“There are so many different people from so many different cultures,” he said. “It just made sense to show everyone’s grandmother.”
Today, Enoteca Maria has two kitchens — one for the in-house chefs who prepare Italian fare — and another for the visiting Nonna. Sometimes there are two visiting nonnas on duty. The restaurant is open Friday through Sunday, and apart from a few Italian staples, the menu is different every day – depending on a nonna’s specials. It is recommended to reserve at least two weeks in advance as there are often long waiting lists.
Given the variety of cuisines on offer and the ingredients required, running the restaurant can be difficult, Scaravella explained. Still, he said, “I love what I do.”
Scaravella and restaurant manager Paola Vento organize the weekly schedule and work with the nonnas to set the menu. Typically, visiting nonnas are hired to cook at the restaurant about once a month, Scaravella said, although some come more often and others only once or twice a year.
“My favorite part of the job is working with the grandmas,” Vento said, adding that the daily highlight is when the customers clap for the visiting nonnas at the end of the evening. “You have to see the faces of the nonnas. They are so proud and so excited that they were able to share part of their culture through food.”
Many of the Nonnas, Vento said, have become close friends. Although they speak different languages and come from different places, they have found ways to bond – mainly through food.
“There’s a lot of love in the room,” she said.
There’s one criterion for becoming a visiting nonna: “You have to love cooking, and that’s it,” Vento said.
Although there is no mandatory test, many aspiring chefs take a free one-to-one class offered at the Nonnas in Training restaurant.
Komatsudaira signed up for a session six years ago and although she had no experience working in a restaurant, she was immediately hooked. Since then she has regularly visited Nonna at the restaurant and has recently written a cookbook called Japanese Superfoods.
When she first started working at Enoteca Maria, “I started to feel so passionate about sharing my Japanese heritage,” she says, adding that her grandmother is “one of the strongest influences” on her cooking.
While Scaravella is missing his own Nonna, he said his heart — and stomach — feel full again. What began as an attempt to reconnect with his roots has enabled others to do the same.
“It’s hundreds of years of culture coming out of these fingertips,” he said. “It’s beautiful stuff.”
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