Italian Grandmothers Take Over a Restaurant on Staten Island

As a restaurateur, the ambiance and experience your guest will have in your restaurant is just as important as the food they will eat. Often months of research and development take place before a restaurant opens while the owners, chefs and management search for the right look, feel and taste to define what their new venture will be. Instead of trying to replicate that slow-cooked tomato sauce that tastes authentically like an Italian grandmother's secret recipe, one restaurant owner decided to go straight to the source. According to the New York Daily News, Joe Scaravella of Enoteca Maria Italian restaurant on Staten Island has hired eight Italian-born grandmothers to  cook truly authentic Italian cusine every night. Each of the women rotate cooking for the 35-seat restaurant and since each of the women come from different parts of Italy, regional dishes can vary from night to night. One woman was quoted saying that she's happy to cook what she wants and how she wants, her husband is spoiled and doesn't apprciate what she does, at Enoteca Maria, people clap in appreciation at the end of the night.

If you can't get to Staten Island any time soon, you can attempt to create your own Italian style dishes- here are some standouts from Foodista for inspiration.