Why Hong Kong restaurant Ninetta serves homely Italian fare, just like how nonna made it
Chef Marco Xodo’s Ninetta brings home-style Italian dining to Hong Kong, blending fine dining quality with casual, family-style portions
Unlike most Italian men, chef Marco Xodo is not a mamma’s boy. Instead, he is a nonna’s boy.
“My mum used to work, so she would drop me off at Grandma’s [in Seregno, just north of Milan],” Xodo recalls. “Every day she was cooking for six, seven people because the family was quite big. I remember she was in the kitchen from the first hours of the morning until the evening.
“She was always cooking, cooking, cooking.”
Xodo would also spend summers with his paternal grandmother in Calabria, in the south of Italy.
“I still remember the smell of the food and ingredients,” he recalls. “I always tried to help my grandma. Every time I passed the kitchen, she always gave me something to try.”
One dish that stayed with him was her simple tomato pasta, made with produce from her garden.