Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Nonnas’ tells the story of a unique restaurant where the chefs are four Italian grandmothers. It begins with Joe Scaravella deciding to open a restaurant in Staten Island in memory of his mother and grandmother. The real reason he wants the business is to recreate the feeling he had when he ate the food made by the women in his family who are no longer around. This leads him to reach out to his late mother’s friends, Gia and Roberta, to lend their skills in the kitchen to his upcoming restaurant. At the same time, he places an ad on Craigslist, which adds Teresa and Antonella to the team, who bring something new to the table. As they work together, the nonnas make the restaurant a success, while also developing a strong bond with each other for life.
The Fictional Quartet Represents the Real Grandmothers of Enoteca Maria
‘Nonnas’ recounts the true story of Jody “Joe” Scaravella and the creation of Enoteca Maria. As presented in the movie, the real-life Scaravella also employed nonnas at his restaurant. However, the film takes a fictional approach in representing them, as certain creative liberties were taken with the plot and drama of the story. However, the writers of the film looked at the women who worked at Enoteca Maria, especially in its early days. One of the women who joined the restaurant while it was still being built was Carmelina Pica. Before joining Scaravella’s endeavour, she split her time working at a sewing factory and making appetizers for an Italian market. Hailing from Marcianise in Naples, Italy, she is still one of the major cooks at Enoteca Maria.
Adelina Orazzo was one of the first nonnas to respond to Scaravella’s Craigslist ad when her niece brought it to her attention. At the restaurant, she found a new purpose for herself, and continues to deliver magic through her food even now. Another woman who joined them was Teresa Scalici, who became famous for her cookies and made dishes from her grandmother’s cookbook. Over the years, many other nonnas have joined the restaurant and brought their own touch to the menu. Initially, the nonnas were from Italy, but now, they are from around the world. Some of them have become so popular with the regulars that the customers come specifically for their food.
The restaurant has also given the nonnas a space to build a community for themselves. Most of them have either lost their spouses, are living alone, or their children have moved away from home to build a future for themselves. Despite the different languages they speak or the different cuisines they make, they are brought together by their love for food. They have developed a strong bond with each other, giving rise to heartwarming friendships and connections that have become an essential part of their lives.
Enoteca Maria’s Nonnas Have Significantly Increased in Numbers
In the movie, Enoteca Maria begins with four nonnas, but in real life, their numbers have increased over the years. About a dozen nonnas are regulars at the restaurant, while several others appear in rotation. Jody Scaravella placed an ad for grandmothers to hire them as cooks for his restaurant. Over the years, the number of applicants increased to the point that he decided to give everyone a chance to join the team. Because everyone couldn’t work at the same time, a system of rotation was put in place, which came in handy when Scaravella decided to expand the cuisine of the restaurant outside of Italy.
In 2015, he decided to have grandmothers of all nationalities to broaden the horizons of the restaurant. His decision was partly impacted by the fact that his customers, too, were of differing nationalities, not just Italian. The current criteria for becoming a nonna in Enoteca Maria are that a person should be at least 50 years old, have to be born in the country whose cuisine they are going to make, and above all, be really good at cooking. Scaravella encourages women to make the recipes passed down through the generations to preserve the culinary history of their families and their countries. In addition to this, the nonnas also give free cooking lessons to anyone interested in expanding their culinary skills.
With nonnas from around the world bringing cuisines of different countries to the table every weekend, a system is set in place to determine the weekly rotation of the nonnas and the food they will be serving. Usually, these details are decided upon every Monday, but they are also liable to change depending on the health and personal issues of the nonnas. Moreover, the nonnas have no limit or compulsion for how many times they can or should cook at the restaurant. Some are regulars, others come around monthly, while some do not come around more than once or twice a year. The menu of the restaurant changes every single day. It depends entirely on what each nonna will offer on that particular day, which means the customers always have something new waiting for them.
The Drama Between Nonnas Exists, But It’s All in Good Spirit
One of the things that Joe Scaravella struggles with in the Netflix film is getting Roberta and Antonella to work with each other. They are from different parts of the country (one from Sicily, the other from Bologna), which pits them in competition against each other. It turns out that this drama isn’t entirely fictional. Jody Scaravella revealed that sometimes, two Italian nonnas in the kitchen could get rather competitive. He revealed that there are times when frying pans have been raised, and the competitive spirit of the nonnas has gotten the better of them, leading to arguments between them.
He also revealed that, initially, it was a challenge to familiarise the nonnas with the health and safety codes required of a restaurant and to make them work according to the said rules. At home, the nonnas are used to leaving their pots of sauce to cook for hours on end, but the same cannot be done in the kitchen of a professional restaurant, so they had to try to find ways around that so that they wouldn’t be in violation of the rules. At the end of the day, the intent is for the women to enjoy themselves and make the meals out of the love in their hearts. For Scaravella, the whole purpose of creating the restaurant was to celebrate the cooking of the grandmothers and offer them and their talents a space to shine, flourish, and be appreciated by the whole world.
Read More: Where is Joe Scaravella Now? Update on Enoteca Maria Owner
