New York restaurant uses local grandmothers to cook instead of chefs

STATEN ISLAND, NY - 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.

"You can have this for breakfast, you were saying."

"Yes, breakfast and sometimes when you have parties - they have this for dinner."

"Nonna" means grandmother in Italian.

These nonnas and nonno are from all over the world.

Most of them work at least once a month here at Staten Island's Enoteca Maria and they cook dishes from their home countries.

Owner of Enoteca Maria, Jody Scaravella, said, "We have two kitchens. One is always staffed by an Italian grandmother and the other kitchen changes every day."

Scaravella implemented the idea at his restaurant about a year ago.

"I asked them if they know somebody and it's a nice project because it's not a big commitment. They get out of the house once a month and the come here and they make a little money and they have a little fun and the customers really appreciate them.

Nonno Giuseppe makes the pasta here.

He has been cooking for over a half a century.

"To get a good result you need a good ingredient."

"What ingredients? Fresh ingredients?"

"Yes, fresh ingredients, good ingredients and then you get the result - it's excellent."

After the pasta course, there is the main dish: roasted chicken.

It's cooked by Nonna Adelina.

"Where do you get this recipe. Who did this? Your mama?"

"Yeah, a long time ago. I was more baby.

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.

So we meet an Italian nonna, we met a Sri Lankan, we also have Russian, we have Greek, Mexican, Venezuela, and Turkey.

And now what's left to do but just eat, right?

All right cheers!