Three Italian restaurants, one 91-year-old nonna's recipes
During the Second World War, in a mountainous coastal town in the South of Italy, Rosina Taverniti began rolling gnocchi and kneading bread for hungry soldiers.
“I was 14-years-old,” she told CTV News Toronto. Now, at 91, she is the nonna of three Italian restaurants in Toronto serving the recipes she first sunk her hands into as a teenager.
In 1956, Rosina left home, but her gnocchi, lasagna, tiramisu and dozens of other recipes landed with her when she arrived in Canada on a white Christmas eve. Soon, she was standing at a podium in front of a crowd of hundreds of factory workers in Toronto teaching them how to make pasta.
Growing up, Rosina’s children woke to the smell of ripe tomatoes simmering into sauce. In Rosina’s son Domenic’s eyes, his mother’s food was unmatched and he wanted to share it with the rest of Little Italy.
In 2011, they opened Trattoria Taverniti at College and Clinton with a four burner stove.
“We never once altered a recipe,” said Anthony Taverniti, Rosina’s grandson.
Food from one of Rosina Taverniti's restaurants is seen in this photograph. (Hannah Alberga/CTV News Toronto)
Just over a decade later, Rosina's recipes populated three kitchens: Taverniti, along with Tav’s Gnocchi & Pizza Bar right next door, and Rosina near King and Bathurst.
The latter two veer in a more modern direction than Taverniti’s red and white checkered tablecloths, playing louder music and attracting younger crowds.
“The food is consistent,” Anthony said. “The sauce would be the same, the pizza dough would be the same, the gnocchi, the same. Just the location and the environment of the restaurant itself completely changes the demographic of people we have there.”
Tables at Taverniti restaurant in Toronto are seen in this photograph. (Hannah Alberga/CTVNews Toronto)
While Rosina’s recipes steer new waters, she remains an anchor in the Taverniti kitchen. Still, she sits in a chair tucked into the corner and watches over the dinner-time rush.
“I don’t like to stay on the couch,” Rosina said. “ I come here for the company.”
ABOUT TABLE TALK
Table Talk is a weekly CTV News Toronto series that explores the people who shape Toronto’s food scene, published every Friday at CTVNewsToronto.ca
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
Investigators have finally revealed the identity of an unknown victim nicknamed 'Midtown Jane Doe,' who was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City two decades ago.