83 years old, 3.3 million followers on Instagram, 1.6 on TikTok. These are the numbers that accompany Nonna Silvi, born Silvana Bini. She is one of the most popular Italian culinary influencers, with millions of followers online, even if her adventure in the world of social media began almost by chance. Then it turned into a global phenomenon, thanks to her authenticity and passion for Italian culinary traditions. Grandma Silvi is not afraid of anything in the kitchen, so much so that she recently returned from a trip to Qatar, where she cooked for the Emir and the Al-Thani family. And it is with a mixture of pride and humility that he recounts his experience.
The experience in Qatar
“First class travel, all paid for, what a beauty. And to think that I was a little scared, I didn't even know how to greet these people, you know, the emir, his wife: the hand? A bow? A curtsy? And then I don't give up (and he touches the Franciscan tau around his neck). I asked all the cooks to obey my orders, I had them prepare Tuscan ragù, fettuccine, lasagne, lamb ragout,” he tells the Corriere della Sera. When asked what she would have cooked at the G7, if she had been invited as a chef, she replied ironically: “There I would have made a bread soup with lots of beans, so everyone would have run to the toilet.” And Giorgia Meloni too? “Not for her, for her a beautiful pasta with Tuscan sauce, one of those delicious ones. All women should be like her, I love her one hundred percent.”
The story of Nonna Silvi
In conversation with Luca Iaccarino, Silvana Bini says that she has been working since she was little, helping her father and then in women's clothing with her sisters. She then married a chicken farmer and ran a business with him for twenty years. However, when her husband decided to give up his job, Silvana made the courageous decision to divorce and continue living alone. He set up an embroidery factory and continued to support his family. “At the time, women had no rights, today they are right to obtain them. It is then clear that we do more than men: work, more home and family,” he explains.
“I knew hunger”
Father a printer, mother a beater, Bini talks about his difficult childhood: “I know hunger, of course. And even when things were less bad, we lived only on bread: at the bakery we bought almost ten kilos a day with which we fed all nine of us, with oil, salt, vinegar, sugar, that's all. For that, it was to eat. And when she succeeded, mother took a hundred and fifty lire of cutlets and made enough for everyone.”
Popularity on social networks thanks to his nephew
Nonna Silvi's popularity on social media exploded almost by chance. It all started when her nephew Gabriele posted a video in which Silvana scolded him for getting a tattoo. The video was an unexpected success, and from there began the cooking videos that went around the world. “I just changed my phone, I can't even connect to Facebook. When we shoot them, we always say to each other: 'do this, do that', he tells me. Oh, but then!” says Silvana. Despite all the successes and experiences she has had, Grandma Silvi's greatest wish is very simple: “A nice dinner with all the brothers and sisters, while we are all still here. From my niece, owner of the PerBacco restaurant in Montespertoli. Nothing fancy, eh? Simple cooking, just the way I like it.”
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