Posted on May 2, 2015 - by Enoteca

Grandmas in the Voice!

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In a tiny galley kitchen, just steps from the Staten Island Ferry, an Italian grandmother is making ravioli. Just as her grandmother taught her, she flips the sunshine yellow pasta dough up and over a spoonful of ricotta and parmesan, pinches, folds, and sets a pouch down on a tray.

“There’s really something special about it, having dinner made by an Italian grandma,” says the Jody Scaravella, the proprietor of Enoteca Maria (27 Hyatt Street, Staten Island, (718)447-2777), who recruited the grandmas to cook via an ad in an Italian newspaper. “I was still building the restaurant then, so I asked them to come to my place to cook instead — I live in the neighborhood. And they came with dishes, and their husbands and a few grandchildren they were looking after for the day. The whole thing was like a Felini movie.”

Now, ten grandmas (currently four on regular rotation) rule the kitchen. Each has their own night, cooking their own menu from their own region.