Pizzo, Calabria, 1935
Who is our Nonna Tina?
Concettina Ielo: the cook, the queen of every party, and the reason we exist.
Nonna Tina was raised in an orphanage after her father died fishing at sea for his family, when she was very young. She grew up in a poor village in wartime Italy, which taught her and her family to cook beautiful, affordable, rustic meals.
In the mid-1900s she moved to NSW with her husband, Nonno Tony, and they raised eight children together, mostly around Hornsby and Kellyville.
“Elegant, fun, loving, energetic, graceful, vibrant. Nonna had an aura about her.”
She was the life of every party and the glue that kept the family together. In the kitchen she was a wizard, and every bite tasted like it came straight out of Calabria. We're on a mission to make sure as many people as possible taste her cooking at least once in their life, just like we all did.
Family home videos
Nonna Tina, aka Queen Elizabeth
At parties Nonna wore a tiara and played the Queen. She pulled off an uncanny likeness, and to everyone in the family she really was one.
Phone recordings of old home videos playing on a TV, so please excuse the grain.
The family
Nonna Tina and Nonno Tony had eight children, who at one stage all lived under the same roof: Pasquale, Adelina, Aurora, Gelormina, Rocco, Rita, Francesco and Domenico.
Their grandchildren include Tony, Tina, Josie, Steven, Daniel, Jason, Belinda, Alisha, Remee, Lorissa, Patricia, Olivia, George, Dani, Jason, Adam, Charles, Paul, Jade, Jamie, Anthony, Michael, Isabella, Joseph and Antonio, and now there are great-grandchildren too.
