At Enoteca Maria, grandmas rule the kitchen.
Hailing from all over the globe—Argentina, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Taiwan—they come to cook at this tiny restaurant on Staten Island, New York—a stone’s throw away from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
They’re known as the “nonnas of the world”—“nonna” is Italian for “grandmother”—a rotating cast of dozens of women who make family recipes from their home countries. Come for a meal, and they adopt you as their own.
“I wanted to cook just like I am cooking at home for my family, without using additives or artificial flavors,” said Yumiko Komatsudaira, who specializes in Japanese food. Whether she’s cooking at home or at the restaurant, “it’s the same thing, which is to take care of people you love and provide the food [they] enjoy eating. The outcome is they feel really good about eating great food.”…