How One Man’s Grief Led to a Global Celebration of Grandmas and Their Recipes
After Joe Scaravella lost his grandmother in 1999, he deeply missed their traditional Italian family meals. In March 2007, he opened Enoteca Maria in Staten Island, inviting nonnas to cook the cherished dishes they had served their families for generations, bringing the comfort of home to the restaurant’s guests.
At Staten Island’s Enoteca Maria, both the menu and cuisine are full of surprises. The kitchen is led by rotating nonnas — grandmothers from around the world — sharing meals made with love. Recent nonnas came from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Peru, and Japan, with Egypt, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Argentina on the horizon, alongside their signature Italian fare.
For owner Jody Scaravella, the concept is deeply personal. After losing his Italian-born mother and grandmother, he opened the restaurant in 2007 to honor their memory, recreating the warmth of family kitchens. “People are always talking about their mothers and grandmothers, and the way they cooked. It really takes you by the hand and leads you down memory lane,” he said.
Scaravella initially featured nonnas from different regions of Italy but quickly learned it wasn’t sustainable. “I learned at that moment that you cannot put two ladies from the same culture in the kitchen at the same time. I’m sure it’s with every culture — there’s competition and there are proprietary issues and all of that.”
To solve this, he opened the kitchen to nonnas from around the world. “It’s OK to put ladies from different cultures because they don’t really know what the other one is doing,” he said. This diversity has delighted customers, who now enjoy an ever-changing menu influenced by the heritage of whoever is cooking that night.
In July 2015, Jody Scaravella welcomed a Pakistani nonna to cook for a night, sparking the Nonnas of the World program. This initiative brought grandmothers from diverse backgrounds to create a rotating menu alongside the restaurant’s signature Italian dishes.
Many of the nonnas at Enoteca Maria are empty nesters or widows, but their passion for cooking remains strong. For them, food creates a special bond and a shared sense of connection, bringing people together and evoking cherished memories. Scaravella affectionately calls all the women “Nonna,” the Italian word for grandmother.
The menu changes daily, based on what each Nonna is preparing, offering patrons a diverse and heartwarming dining experience. Joe mentions that if his Nonnas aren’t hugging him, they are giving hugs to the customers.
Culinary geniuses often live among us, cooking meals so delicious you’d lick the plate clean—though their recipes and secrets often remain a mystery. These creative (and sometimes chaotic) moments prove that the kitchen is full of surprises!
