S2 E5: Before the Stories Disappear: Food, Family, Memory and the Rituals That Hold Us Together with Rossella Rago
What do families lose when they stop gathering?
In this episode of Before It Breaks, Gabriella Pomare sits down with Rossella Rago, the creator and host of Cooking with Nonna, author, entrepreneur and culinary storyteller, for a beautiful conversation about food, family, memory, culture, divorce, grief, grandmothers and the rituals that hold generations together.
Rossella shares how Cooking with Nonna began in 2008 after her father bought the website and built her first set, and how what started as filming Italian grandmothers sharing recipes grew into cookbooks, products and a platform dedicated to preserving culture, memory and the wisdom of older generations. She speaks movingly about her grandmother, Nonna Romana, who passed away at 92, and the way she became a symbol of love, strength, family and belonging.
This conversation is about food — but really, it is about so much more than food.
It is about Sunday dinners.
The smell of sauce.
The recipe you never wrote down.
The grandmother who showed love by feeding you.
The stories we assume we will always have time to ask.
The family rituals that quietly disappear when people become busy, distant or estranged.
Gabriella and Rossella explore how families begin to drift before anyone realises what is being lost, and why sitting around a table can be one of the most powerful ways to preserve connection, identity and belonging.
They also talk honestly about divorce, cultural expectations, Italian family traditions, bella figura, grief, resilience, and why love is often found in the smallest daily gestures — the coffee made, the favourite cereal bought, the meal prepared, the effort made.
As Rossella says in the episode, falling in love can happen quickly, but falling out of love often happens through “a hundred thousand micro disconnections.”
In this episode:
- how Cooking with Nonna began;
- what grandmothers teach us about love, family and resilience;
- why food carries memory, identity and grief;
- the importance of Sunday dinners and family rituals;
- how families become disconnected through busyness, distance and silence;
- why recipes are never just recipes;
- what older generations wish younger people understood earlier;
- food as repair, comfort and connection;
- divorce, cultural expectations and bella figura;
- preserving children’s culture after separation;
- why “readiness is bullshit” and you should start before you feel ready;
- and what we need to notice before family stories, rituals and traditions disappear.
This episode is for anyone who grew up around a family table, anyone who misses a grandparent, anyone who has watched family rituals fade, anyone navigating divorce or changing family traditions, and anyone who knows that food is sometimes how love says: you belong here.
Because before families break, they often stop gathering.
And before the stories disappear, there is often still time to ask.
Listen to this episode of Before It Breaks with Gabriella Pomare for an honest, emotional and deeply relatable conversation about food, family, culture, memory, relationships, divorce, grief and the rituals that hold us together before it breaks.
