How Italian Nonna Chic Became the Biggest News in Interiors

“Enough distance has passed [to celebrate it] because that generation, after the war, couldn’t get out quick enough; they wanted to work [but] they didn’t have further education,” says Bennison, whose bestselling cookbook, Pasta Grannies, brings these nonnas’ stories to life. “Someone we filmed [making pasta] in Sicily recently was a cow herd when she was younger; [she] helped her dad on the farm by day and wrote poetry in the evenings. The difference is that now we all make a choice about whether we make pasta, but for them, they had to learn it to get married and they were told they wouldn’t get a decent husband if they couldn’t make pasta properly.”

Nonnas were—and are—“the cornerstone of Italian gastronomy,” says Bennison. After hearing enough chefs saying that they were inspired by their nonna’s cooking, she decided to find the women they were talking about and give them their moment. Many were surprised. “I mean, it’s like opening a can of beans [to them],” she says. “A wonderful woman, Pina from Genova, couldn’t work out why we came back to film her making gnocchi: ‘Surely you don’t have to come all this way to make gnocchi?!’ she asked.”

It’s clear that the appreciation of food and the comfort of Italian cooking is a big part of the allure when it comes to the nonna aesthetic in our homes. “Food is love, isn’t it?” says Bennison. “It nourishes not just the body but [can change] how you’re feeling—a big bowl of pasta makes you feel better.”

And it’s picking up pace. Recently, Zara Home contacted Bennison to ask if her Pasta Grannies could be the stars of its new homewares collection, having seen a feature on the cover of the Spanish newspaper, El País. Bennison agreed on the condition that actual nonnas would feature and be compensated, and so Maria Argnani from Faenza, Leondina Micolucci from Brisighella, and Nadia Bassignani from Genova are now the happy stars of an international campaign. For the record, their pasta utensils and copper pots have the three women’s approval, assures Bennison.

It is, of course, only apt that these women and their lifestyles are celebrated as the custodians of nonna-core. For her part, Bettina, now a nonna herself, is “hugely flattered” that her daughter’s generation is finding charm in her Italian traditions. “You don’t expect young people to be interested in old shapes and things that are still handmade, so I am incredibly proud and honored that people want things that are true, which are real, and that we can all share,” she says. “People have always needed that familiarity and the comfort of things that are not necessarily old, but always full of love.”