“The Nonnas”Feels Like a Cookbook… For Moving On From Grief

Don’t you wish there was a simple recipe we can follow for moving on?

Whether it’s from a loss of a job, health, or loved one.  Grief can come in different ways.

The reason “The Nonnas” feels like a cookbook is because a cookbook’s pages are made of independent, unique recipes.  While the film begins with the main character mourning the loss of his mother, later in the film we will see that everyone is grieving a different loss.

In real life, Brooklyn native and Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee Joe Scaravella lost beloved family members in quick succession, including his grandmother and mother. That could knock anybody into a deep depression, as it did it for him. Using his inheritance, he later moved to Staten Island to start over, and decided to open a restaurant in honor of his mother, Maria.

And Enoteca Maria, a Staten Island restaurant that employs grandmothers exclusively, was born. Their mission? To serve unique food offerings that remind patrons of their childhood. 

In the film, the first set of chefs have lived through different trials, and have lived to tell the tale. There’s more to these sassy nonnas (grandmas, in Italian) than meets the eye. 

An elderly widow.

A former nun who left her life in the convent.

A beautiful and perceived-to-be-vain hairdresser who’d had a double mastectomy.

A feisty mother in a senior home who regretted how harshly she’d raised her children.

This heartwarming, cozy comedy-dramawill not just make you crave Italian cuisine, whether it’s pizza and pasta, cannoli, or simple bread.
 
It offers simple lessons on starting over:

It’s never too late.
And you’re never too old.

Enoteca Maria starts as an Italian restaurant, but today, it serves cuisine by grandmothers around the world. The beauty of Scaravella’s story is that, on his own journey of grief, he was able to honor not just his late mother and grandmother, but grandmothers everywhere. 

While there is no single source of grief and no single recipe to handle grief…. there is a verse that provides a lot of comfort.

John 13:7 English Standard Version

“Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’"

Is there a loss you are grieving today? If you feel like you need someone to talk to, our lines are open, and we hope to provide you with encouragement.