There's no nonna in the box, but you still get Italian gourmet foods every month! A chat with Guido Pedrelli, founder of Nonna Box

What if you could receive fresh Italian products every month? No, you are not dreaming, you are just thinking about Nonna Box, a new way to bring a piece of Italy at your front door.

Here in Los Angeles we are used to ordering pretty much anything online. But, we were just missing a subscription box for the foodies out there that love Italian cuisine as much as we do.

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Subscription boxes are a thing nowadays and Guido Pedrelli, the mind behind Nonna Box, adopted this model to take the unique products of Italian cuisine one step closer to you. Choose the region that you like the most and you will receive fresh and quality products every month. Perhaps more importantly, each box includes three recipes from a real Italian nonna, telling you how to turn those ingredients into a delicious meal.

Nonna Box founder and CEO Guido Pedrelli

Guido Pedrelli, founder of Nonna Box

A chat with Guido Pedrelli, founder of Nonna Box

I had the pleasure to interview Guido and I will let his passionate words describe this subscription box.

The Sardinia box by Nonna Box

Wanna try the specialties of Sardinia? This box would be right for you

1) How did you come up with the idea of Nonna Box?

Nonna Box started when I moved to the US four years ago. A lot of subscriptions companies were starting and I immediately thought it was a good idea to do the same for Italian food. However, other things came up and it was not until 2015 that I started actually working on it.
After living abroad for 12 years, I realized that most of the time people connect the idea of Italian food with pasta and pizza, while Italian cuisine is actually tremendously diverse, changing from region to region, and with different unique traditions. I wanted to give people the opportunity to discover Italy’s culinary diversity. With that in mind, my goal has been to include select those products that aren’t often known by the majority of Americans, and that, without Nonna Box, would have probably remained undiscovered.

2) To which regional gastronomic tradition do you feel connected the most?

I am originally from Cesena, in Emilia-Romagna. It’s a beautiful town in the Romagna area of the region, with a strong gastronomic tradition: piadina (a traditional flatbread), ravioli, tagliatelle, lasagne, passatelli, Sangiovese wine, and cured meats just to name a few. These products especially remind me of Sunday’s family gatherings at my nonni’s in San Carlo di Cesena. They used to own a two-generation-old trattoria, a bar and a small grocery store. Nonna would cook for all my extended family, so that we could spend a family day together.

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The Tuscany box of Nonna Box

Flavors of Tuscany from Nonna Box

3) What’s in a Nonna Box that you cannot find anywhere else?

Each Nonna Box includes hard-to-find imported gourmet products that you wouldn’t find in a normal grocery store. Since these items are not at all widely available, it is very unlikely that would find all of them in one store, one city, or one online shop. Nowhere else will you find the same attention and thought that goes into each box: the nonnas’ regional stories, the history of the products, plus traditional recipes with wine pairings.

4) What product(s) would you like to put in a Nonna Box, but haven’t been able to?

At the moment, the dimensions of the box act as a constraint. We simply cannot include all the products that I would have liked to include! However, we are working on it and hopefully we will eventually be able to offer those products. This would, for example, include some type of egg pasta, which is more fragile than other pastas and therefore has to be treated with care.

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Nonna Box recipes and ingredients

Every box comes with nonna-approved recipes

5) What do the nonnas think about it? Do they want royalties? 😉

They are all very proud and excited to be part of Nonna Box! It’s been a way to recognize their hard work of bringing their families together. Some are so excited that they even framed their Nonna Box card on the wall, like Nonna Gabriella from Montepulciano in Tuscany [yes, where they produce the famous Montepulciano wine]

6) What are your plans for the future?

We are definitely thinking of increasing the variety of boxes. In the future, we are going to offer gluten-free boxes and add more fresh products like cheese or cured meat. We are on a mission to make Italian traditional cooking accessible to everybody, therefore expect boxes that represent regional traditions.

After all these questions, I hope you will all join us in wishing Guido the very best with his business venture. If you want to learn more about Nonna Box, you can find all the information you need here. Also check out their Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates!

Photos courtesy of Nonna Box. Al rights reserved.
 Foodiamo did not receive compensation or products in exchange for this interview.

 

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