Today, Bon Appétit spends the day with Nonna Maria, one of the resident grandma chefs at Enoteca Maria on Staten Island. At 90 years old, Maria has been cooking Italian food longer than most bringing a lifetime of experience and flavor to her dishes. “Enoteca Maria is a place where we invite grandmothers from all over the world in to cook their traditional dishes. Nonna Maria has been working here for about 10 years now, and she lights up the place as soon as she walks in the door. She’s 90 years old and runs around like she’s 16.”
Director: Gunsel Pehlivan
Director of Photography: Luke Riffle
Editor: Misa Qu
Featuring: Maria Gialanella
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Parisa Kosari
Coordinating Producer: Tommy Werner
Line Producer: Joe Buscemi
Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Camera Operator: Carlos Araujo
Assistant Camera: Tony Aviles
Sound Recordist: Lily Van Leewen
Staff Editorial Consultant: Ryan Harrington
Culinary Researcher & Recipe Editor: Vivian Jao
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Filmed on Location at: Enoteca Maria
Director: Gunsel Pehlivan
Director of Photography: Luke Riffle
Editor: Misa Qu
Featuring: Maria Gialanella
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Parisa Kosari
Coordinating Producer: Tommy Werner
Line Producer: Joe Buscemi
Associate Producer: Oadhan Lynch
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Camera Operator: Carlos Araujo
Assistant Camera: Tony Aviles
Sound Recordist: Lily Van Leewen
Staff Editorial Consultant: Ryan Harrington
Culinary Researcher & Recipe Editor: Vivian Jao
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Filmed on Location at: Enoteca Maria
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:01 Enoteca Maria is a place where we invite grandmothers
00:05 from all over the world in to cook their traditional dishes.
00:09 So every day we have a different lady
00:11 from a different part of the world.
00:12 We always have Italian because that's the way we started
00:15 with Italian grandmothers.
00:17 Nona Maria has been working here for about 10 years now
00:21 and she lights up the place as soon as she walks in the door.
00:23 She's 90 years old and she runs around like she's 16.
00:27 Nona Maria has been cooking Italian dishes
00:30 for longer than I'm alive.
00:31 You have hundreds of years of information
00:34 coming out of her fingertips.
00:36 (upbeat music)
00:38 - How are you?
00:43 - Good, how are you?
00:44 - Nice to see you everybody.
00:45 I call you by limousine.
00:47 See?
00:48 Hello, hello.
00:50 A beautiful day.
00:51 (upbeat music)
00:55 More than 11 years I cook over here.
00:58 Come to me, okay?
01:00 I wanna show my kitchen.
01:01 This is my kitchen.
01:05 I make everything fresh, okay?
01:07 April, see?
01:11 - Ciao Maria, ciao!
01:14 - Ciao bello!
01:15 - Ciao!
01:15 So these ladies come in once every four or five weeks.
01:19 You have to be at least 50 years old
01:21 and you have to be born in the country that you represent.
01:23 We're gonna be busy, busy today.
01:25 This I cut for the zucchini.
01:28 I bring everything from my house.
01:30 Like, I cut the zucchini for zucchini parmigiano.
01:34 I wanna cut it because I gotta fry.
01:36 I gotta tell you the truth.
01:37 I have somebody, Italian man, they have my paisan.
01:42 They bring so much zucchini my house.
01:46 So my husband say all the time, "Make something."
01:49 Say, "Okay, I wanna make it like a lasagna."
01:52 I give it to my husband.
01:53 Say, "Oh nice, beautiful!"
01:56 And my mother, she live in second floor.
01:58 And my husband say, "Ma, ma, you wanna come down?"
02:02 And my family crazy, everybody like it.
02:05 Because they like lasagna, you know.
02:07 Just the zucchini, better.
02:08 Every day I cook it for every day.
02:10 I'm born in Torella del Lombardo,
02:12 Provincia di Avellino.
02:14 I born in 1934.
02:16 Next Monday my birthday, be 90.
02:19 I don't feel, I feel great.
02:21 1961 I come here, London.
02:25 So my husband, they do a lot of work in New York,
02:28 in the church, in the youth, all over the place.
02:31 My husband, Harris, they paint in the church,
02:34 they paint the house, they do a lot of painting.
02:37 One day, family, they talk for the priest over here.
02:41 And they say, "My niece in Italy,
02:45 they want to come over here, Harris."
02:48 So my husband say, "Tell the guy
02:51 they send me something in the picture,
02:53 what you like, I make for him."
02:56 When they finish, they put it and send it over here.
02:59 The priest, they open it, say,
03:01 "Oh my God, my father, he talk to me.
03:05 I like him."
03:07 Right away, they sign the papers
03:09 and send it to my husband and they come in New York.
03:11 My husband come in three months before the meet.
03:14 After they come in, me and my daughter,
03:16 my husband miss the daughter more than me.
03:19 My husband die 11 years ago.
03:21 I like to come over here, you know,
03:24 the better.
03:24 I say for the people, I like to cook,
03:27 I like to do everything.
03:28 I keep it busy.
03:30 That's why they like, I like over here.
03:32 I want a coffee.
03:33 Joe!
03:36 Hello.
03:37 (upbeat music)
03:39 - She's happy when she gets her coffee.
04:02 (laughing)
04:04 - Yeah, my you, you mouth never stop.
04:07 (laughing)
04:08 I eat everything.
04:09 So next I wanna fry the zucchini.
04:12 This is flour.
04:13 Breadcrumb, yes.
04:15 I put it all together.
04:17 I put in the flour.
04:19 Now I put in the egg, okay?
04:20 You wanna taste one?
04:25 - Oh, thank you.
04:28 - Enjoy, huh?
04:29 I wanna make a little sauce on the top of the zucchini.
04:32 I wanna show you.
04:33 (upbeat music)
04:36 Just a minute.
04:37 This is easy too.
04:38 You want?
04:40 A little of the sauce in the bottom, okay?
04:45 Like lasagna, you know?
04:47 I continue like this, okay?
04:49 Parmigiano cheese.
04:51 I use logatelli too, ma.
04:53 This is mozzarella.
04:55 More sauce.
04:56 My daughter, she come over here.
04:58 Five, six, a friend, they go to school.
05:01 They come to eat at the restaurant in Nodega Maria.
05:05 After they finish, they eat, and Joe say,
05:08 "Thank you, you come in my restaurant.
05:10 "You like my restaurant?"
05:11 Everybody say, "Oh yes, beautiful."
05:14 One of the girls, she say, "I like flour zucchini."
05:18 And my daughter, she say,
05:19 "My mother, she make zucchini parmigiana."
05:22 And Joe say, "Tell your mother come over here."
05:24 So I come here right away.
05:26 That's why I come over here.
05:28 When my daughter take me.
05:29 11 years, I come over here.
05:31 I enjoy.
05:32 I come three day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
05:34 I make lasagna, make me bowl.
05:36 See, this is my food.
05:38 Like snow, the cheese, look.
05:41 Okay, this is ready.
05:46 30 minute, 350 in the oven, okay?
05:50 Now I finish the zucchini, I make stuff for calamari, okay?
05:54 I want to make the marinara sauce over here.
05:57 I will leave the oil.
05:59 Garlic and onion.
06:01 For the fish, a little garlic.
06:02 Yeah, I got a wine over here.
06:07 Mom and Briago burro.
06:11 I make the stuff for the calamari.
06:13 Little bread, table, little wine, okay?
06:16 And oil too.
06:18 I drink like this.
06:19 This is garlic, Italian olive.
06:23 Some parsley in there, okay?
06:25 I make a little cheese.
06:28 Know my grandma and my father too.
06:31 My father like to cook more than my mother.
06:34 My grandma say, "Maria, come inside.
06:36 You got to learn to cook because you got to marry."
06:39 "No, no, I'm four years old, I got to marry?"
06:42 "Oh, I don't want to marry!"
06:44 No, when you big, you got to marry.
06:47 This is tomato sauce, fresh tomato.
06:49 I put it inside, okay?
06:51 I feel great, I feel beautiful because I'm busy.
06:55 This is calamari, I put inside.
06:58 Let me know Q-tip, Paola.
07:01 - Q-tip? - Yeah.
07:02 - Toothpick.
07:03 - I make a nice linguine for this one.
07:06 Nothing put in the refrigerator for tomorrow.
07:12 Everything give a big dish,
07:14 the people when you finish, they go home.
07:17 That's what the people like over here
07:19 because every day fresh.
07:21 I make the marinara sauce for the cavatelli, yes.
07:25 I got to put the onion inside for the oil.
07:29 When I was young, I opened the cafe five o'clock
07:33 in the morning, I was 14 years old.
07:36 When my father died, one month and a half
07:39 the coffee machine, it was closed.
07:41 So I was over here, my mother,
07:43 all the brains over here, the duck, the roe,
07:46 they fix and they take it in the hospital.
07:49 For the police, they close the bar,
07:51 they give me the keys.
07:52 Everybody say, "My God, Maria, so small,
07:56 "they take care of the bar."
07:58 They take care of the bar, my brother, my sister,
08:00 because I'm the first in the family.
08:02 I'm the older one.
08:04 I did everything, I wash clothes, everything.
08:06 This is my life.
08:08 This is the sausage, Italiano, my garlic pork.
08:12 My daughter, she have two boy and a girl.
08:16 My son, they are twins, two girl and one boy.
08:20 Six is a grinch, three boy, three girl.
08:23 They call him all the time, "Oh, no, no, no, I love you."
08:26 (laughs)
08:28 The smell is nice, I don't know.
08:30 This is wine, if I put it in the sausage, okay?
08:33 They give it flavor, okay?
08:36 - Like your approach.
08:40 - Okay.
08:41 - You don't measure it?
08:42 - No, I make it, everything from my house.
08:45 I put it in tomato sauce over here.
08:49 The paste sauce, they give me more flavor.
08:52 When I cook at my house, I sing, you know?
08:56 ♪ Oh sole mio, stando on that day ♪
09:01 This is ready now, you gotta cook now.
09:04 Now I gotta make cavatelli.
09:06 I put some salt inside the flour.
09:09 Now I gotta put the water.
09:11 Fresh cavatelli, because they're more easy,
09:16 they don't go in the store, they buy, make at home.
09:19 This cavatelli, no egg.
09:21 Almost ready.
09:22 You need to work a little bit, you know?
09:24 Look like macaroni, see, look?
09:35 I gotta cut it for make the cavatelli, okay?
09:38 All the time I fry cavatelli, you know, two things, okay?
09:45 Not too big.
09:46 Some people use the machine, I don't like the machine.
09:50 Better when you make it by hand.
09:53 Sometimes I make it, I froze it too.
09:55 Right now it's 2.30, so thank you, you come in.
10:04 I like everybody.
10:05 Go make again another time, okay?
10:08 Everything's beautiful.
10:10 Dando, dando.
10:12 I love you, dando, dando.
10:14 I cook it now.
10:15 (upbeat music)
10:18 (gentle music)
10:20 (upbeat music)
10:23 (upbeat music)
10:25 (upbeat music)
10:28 (howling)
10:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]