After losing his beloved mother, a man risks everything to honour her by opening an Italian restaurant with actual nonnas – grandmothers, as the chefs. After all, no one cooks like Nanna – or Nonna in Italian – and Nonnas illustrates the personal connection we have to those we love, and to the past, through our food traditions.
In Nonnas, the main character Joe is played by Vince Vaughn who, like our protagonist, is of Italian heritage. Upon the death of his mother, shortly after the death of his grandmother, he is bereft, but at his mother’s wake, a friend who has contributed a dish to the gathering tells him to “feed his grief.” As a result, Joe starts cooking her recipes to help process his loss – her soups and pasta, and her gravy which proves a tricky business.
Joe discovers that using his mother’s recipes and recreating her dishes keeps him feeling connected to her, and this gives us a rare emotional insight into what the loss of a mum can mean to a man.
Then, with the $200,000 insurance money Joe inherited on her death, he decides to open a restaurant with a difference: instead of professional chefs creating the meals, he brings in a bunch of nonnas – including Susan Sarandon who adds a touch of glamour as the pastry chef – to decide the menu and do the cooking.
Nonnas is inspired by the story of New York restauranteur Jody Scaravella and his Enoteca Maria Restaurant. The restaurant’s name and ethos celebrates his mum and her kitchen traditions expressed through the love and cooking of real-life grandmas. Originally, Scaravella employed about a dozen Nonnas direct from Italy who each brought their regional recipes to Staten Island, although over time he introduced ‘Nonnas of the World,’ relying on global grandmothers to bring a more international flavour to the menu.
The film, whilst a tear-jerker at times, is fun for all the family with delicious food filmatography that’ll have you drooling: you can smell the basil, taste the tomato and hear the garlic sizzle.
There are laugh-out-loud moments too – particularly when there’s a Nonna-Nonna stand-off over who is the best cook! “Capuzselle is my identity,” declares one… Yes, the fireworks are as you’d imagine, and there’s also a fire when this Italian sheep’s head dish capuzselle results in a fire. Will this put an end to Joe’s restaurant plans? Of course not!
And so, on the big screen as it is in real life, Nonnas is a heart-warming and appetising tale of cooking with love, and of moving on.
And if you’re feeling sentimental in the kitchen, a new book/part-memoir by UK food writer Bee Wilson published earlier this week. In a rummage through the kichen of her past, and the implements she most values, she investigates the value we place on kitchen objects, not because of what they do but because of the memories they evoke. I found myself in tears remembering the IKEA spoon and fork set my own children used when they were small. Who’d have thought it?
With an anthropological bent, talking to fellow kichenware enthusiasts and in doing so visiting different continents, cultures and civilisations through their cooking culture, The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss and Kitchen Objects is a hauntingly beautiful look at what we hold dear and why.