Author Archive
Posted on November 8, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
NBC Nightly News visits Enoteca
Full Article and Slideshow available here:Â http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Staten-Island-Restaurant-Nonnas-Cooking-Homemade-397961991.html
Check out the Video Here!
Posted on October 27, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
Food Porn from Deadspin!
Follow this link for the full episode: http://deadspin.com/we-have-made-food-porn-for-you-the-hungry-people-1787657561
Whoa, hey look at that … it’s a Foodspin TV show. That’s right, folks: Albert Burneko and I and the crack Deadspin video team have made our very own food porn, in which we go across the country to watch master chefs cook their signature dishes, then try to cook our own versions of those dishes and fuck it all up. And yes, I wear a dumb shirt the whole time.
This week, we’re in Staten Island at Enoteca Maria, the fabled Italian restaurant that brings in grandmas (“nonnasâ€) from all over the world to have them cook every night. That’s where Albert and I learned to cook Sri Lankan seafood curry. (I know that’s not Italian … roll with it.) Want to make some yourself? Here’s the recipe for our version:
Sri Lankan seafood curry
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound scallops
1 tomato, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 teaspoons Sri Lankan Chili powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
2 green chiles, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
½ cup water
Handful of curry leaves
1 cup coconut milk
Oil
Salt
- Soak the shrimp and scallops in a bowl filled with water, salt and turmeric. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a skillet. Toast the fenugreek seeds and cinnamon for a minute, and then add the onion and garlic. Once those are soft, add the chiles, curry powder, and curry leaves and stir them around for another minute or two. Add the tomato and let everything meld together. Then toss in the coconut milk, and water. Let it reduce down to a nice thick sauce, then take the shrimp and scallops out of the turmeric wash and put them in. Remove the cinnamon stick. The shellfish should cook through quickly, in a couple of minutes. Serve over rice or noodles.
- Enjoy, motherfucker!
Posted on October 27, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
CBS Coverage!
Posted on October 11, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
Nonnas in Training Cooking Classes! Open Enrollment Season!
Nonnas in Training is a new project being rolled out by Enoteca Maria. Our aim is to keep alive the passing down of technique and knowledge from one generation to another, and from one culture to another. Every day we are open (Wed.-Sun.) we have a different international Nonna cooking at Enoteca Maria, and now from 12-3, they will be teaching how they make their signature dishes in a daily FREE one on one cooking class. The only catch is you don’t get to choose the nationality of the chef you will study under. Use the registration form here on the website to let us know your availability and we will contact you with your enrollment date to come in and receive hands on training from one of our acclaimed international Nonne.
CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION PAGE
Posted on October 10, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
Fox News Coverage!
See it here: http://www.fox5ny.com/news/210324638-story
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) – “Just like grandma used to make” isn’t just a clever slogan at one Staten Island restaurant. Grandmothers are using home-style recipes to keep foodies coming back for more.
Meet Nonna May Joseph. She is making hoppers along with an egg, curry king fish, and onions — a traditional dish from her native Sri Lanka.
“Nonna” is Italian for grandmother. But these nonnas and nonno are from all over the world. Most of them work at least once a month at Staten Island’s Enoteca Maria to cook dishes from their home countries. Owner Jody Scaravella implemented the idea at his restaurant about a year ago. He says one kitchen is always staffed by an Italian grandmother and a second kitchen rotates every night.
Nonno Giuseppe makes the pasta. He has been cooking for over a half a century. After the pasta course, there is the main dish: roasted chicken. It’s cooked by Nonna Adelina. To say all of this food made me hungry may be an understatement. The nonnas aim to make you feel like you’re at home no matter how far away that may be. Enoteca Maria also has nonnas from Russia, Greece, Mexico, Venezuela, and Turkey.
Posted on October 6, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
Gothamist Video and Article about the Nonnas!
Article Here:Â http://gothamist.com/2016/10/06/enoteca_maria_staten_island.php
“Just like grandma used to make” is much more than a clever advertising scheme, it’s literally what’s happening at Staten Island’s Enoteca Maria, where the kitchen’s staffed not by professionally trained chefs, but by a fleet of “nonnas” from around the world. For about a decade, owner Jody Scaravella has opened his kitchens to grandmothers cooking the cuisines of their native countries. It started with just Italian grandmothers, after his own heritage, but has since expanded to include dozens of women from places like Argentina, Algeria, Syria, the Dominican Republic, Poland, Liberia, and Nigeria.
Scaravella got his first recruits by placing an ad in an Italian newspaper seeking “Italian housewives to cook regional dishes,” but over time, his roster has grown by references and word of mouth. “I talked to everybody when somebody gets in, we talk about the concept, I always ask them if you know somebody who wants to cook,” he said. “The concept has just mushroomed.” Though some nonnas are Staten Islanders, most come from Brooklyn, with some traveling from as far as New Jersey and The Bronx to cook at the restaurant.
While the nonnas are the big draw, the restaurant also employs one male “nonno,” Giuseppe Freya from Calabria, who makes all the pasta. “He makes the raviolis, he makes the ricotta gnocchi, he makes tagliatelle, he makes the pasta sheets for our lasagna,” Scaravella explained. “He’s fantastic.”
There’s the old adage about too many cooks, so do the nonnas get along? “Each one of these [Italian] grandmothers feels like they’re the boss, because in their particular family unit, they’re at the top of that pyramid. So when you put all of these grandmothers that are all at the top in a room together, they all feel like they’re in charge and they’re all wondering what that other person is doing there,” Scaravella joked. “It can get dicey.”
Friendly competition in the kitchen aside, the nonnas are a beloved fixture of the community, which hopefully can weather this development storm without too much upheaval. The restaurant even attracts customers from around the world—and they don’t need a fancy ferris wheel to do it.
“I regularly get phone calls from Australia, from England, and from Italy to book reservations. I’m always flattered by that,” Scaravella said. “We get a lot of people who come from Manhattan, the ferry is right down the block. That’s also very flattering, because there’s a restaurant every twenty feet in Manhattan. Why are they coming here?”
They’re coming for a home-cooked meal and an experience—grandma’s cooking—they might not be able to have with their own nonnas anymore. “Usually at the end of the day, the people will applaud the nonnas that have cooked for them,” Scaravella beamed. “They get standing ovations on a regular basis and it’s really something nice.”
Posted on September 26, 2016 - by Enoteca - Comments are off for this post
Curtis Wallin
Now Showing at Galleria Enoteca!
Wallin, an American sculptor, painter, scenic designer, is the creator and curator of a conceptual art initiative entitled WALLINDIA. Â Wallin creates his watercolor painting in Plein-air capturing the time, light and land in front of him. He signs the painting with the location, date, and time creating catalogue of the light and the land. Curtis was named one of “Three to Watch” in the September/October 2012 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. In addition, his landscapes were featured at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, in the “Postcards from the Trail” exhibition in 2012 where his image was later turned into a note card for the Thomas Cole House. Â Wallin currently is working on public artworks for NYC Art in the Parks program and the Packard Plant in Detroit. His sculptures have been featured in the Chanel gardens at Rockefeller Center in NYC and in DUMBO, NYC. Â He was named one of the top 150 emerging artists in New York City in the prestigious CURATE NYC show at the Rush Gallery. Â He had his second solo show in NYC at West 40 Arts in the fall of 2014. Â During his career, Wallin has designed the scenery and projections for more than 20 theatrical productions, concerts and operas working in both the classical and the avantgarde, including the Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, The Austrian Cultural Forum, UCLA, and Santa Fe Pro Musica. He has consulted in Moscow on American musicals. Â Wallin designed the welcoming pavilion for the NY Botanical Gardens and their Children’s Benefit Concert, “Peter Yarrow and Friends”. Â He is a member of United Scenic Artists and graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan.
At Enoteca Maria, we welcome artists from the North Shore and other parts of Staten Island to bring their art to our table. We’re devoting a space just for you, to feature a selection of art work each month in our virtual gallery…Enoteca Galleria.
We invite you to submit a series of three to five images of your work: (photographs or images of your paintings, drawings, sculptures, metal work, or files of your graphic design.
Please email (content at enotecamaria dot com) your selections, along with your name, location, and web address (if available).
Submission guidlines: .jpg or .png, 72dpi, max width 750 pixels, max height 500 pixels.
All images remain in the copyright of the artist and are used by permission.
There is no fee for entry or compensation for use.
Artists whose images are selected for the gallery will be notified by email.
