Posted on February 26, 2017 - by Enoteca

New York Lens focuses on Teaching Nonnas!

Full Article Here: http://nycitylens.com/2017/02/grandmothers-teach-home-cuisines/

As patrons ordered burratas, spicy sausages, and shrimp and garlic pasta for lunch at the Italian restaurant Enoteca Maria at Staten Island last Wednesday, two cooks dressed in aprons and hairnets, chopped up scallions, tomatoes, plantains, carrots and string beans in the open kitchen next to the bar.The older of the two women was clearly in-charge. She made the younger, me, taste the yellow, chicken-flavored rice, and instructed me on how to pull the chicken from the bones.

Oddly, we weren’t cooking the food that was being served, and several customers asked the Italian-American owner Jody Scaravella what was going on. He told them that Rosa Maria Ortega, a Colombian from Medellin was preparing a traditional meal for the dinner service. The Indian woman next to her, (me of course), was learning to cook from Ortega under a program where older women teach younger ones the secrets of cooking, called the “ Nonna-in-Training”. Nonna in Italian means grandmother.

Offered for free, Nonnas-in-Training, Scaravella’s brain child is an opportunity for others to cook with the Nonna of the Day in the kitchen and learn about her food culture. According to Scaravella, the program has a four month waiting period, and cooks get an opportunity to work with Nonnas from Liberia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Syria, and other countries. The caveat: the trainee cooks don’t get to choose the Nonna – they work with the one assigned for the day….

Read More Here: http://nycitylens.com/2017/02/grandmothers-teach-home-cuisines/