If you’re a fan of Italian cooking and you’re living in Jakarta, you probably have heard of and dined in Mama Rosy, a beautiful restaurant in Kemang Raya that serves up one of the most authentic Italian food and an incredibly ‘homey’ atmosphere you can find in the city. But did you know, that running the kitchen and the whole restaurant is an all-Italian family that emigrated from their beautiful hometown, to open up the restaurant we’re speaking of. Talking about real dedication!
We recently sat down with Stefania Vigone, co-owner and manager of Mama Rossy to talk about the restaurant, her hometown, and her family’s dedication to Italian food.
How long have you lived in Jakarta?
I have been here for almost three years now, but my family came here long before me; my mom has been here for about four years, but my brother has been here for more than 12 years.
Tell me a little bit about you and your family.
We come from a coastal region called Liguria, in northwestern Italy. It is a part of Italy that is the closest to France and is a beautiful region where people from Milan would have their second home. My mother’s family has been in the food business for decades, her mother first opened her first shop in 1947, after the World War II. One side of her shop sold wine, and the other half served typical dishes from our region, fried fish, soup, pasta, which were all prepared handmade all by her.
This restaurant later closed, and later my grandmother and my mother opened a bed and breakfast. From then we also opened a restaurant in the historical part of town, so before we moved here me and my grandmother were already running a restaurant, for more than 25 years.
The beautiful seaside town of Ligure, where Stefania’s family emigrated from.
And how did Mama Rosy start?
My brother Daniel, who had been living in here for so long, always wanted to open a restaurant and bring his mother’s cooking here. He always went on and on about it! Until one day he called and actually told us he found a perfect place for a restaurant, and the rest, is well, he brought all of us here!
At first it was just my mom who got here and tried out some recipes for our friends to try here; to know which of her cooking that would suit the local taste, and so forth because we know how different can the general palates be from one country to the other. And then after it was all settled, it was my turn to come here and help with my husband and my son, and we are now all here, and from then on Mama Rosy is officially a family-run restaurant!
Can you say Mama Rosy brings a typical food of your home town?
Yes. We have a lot of dishes which is very specific to our region, vitello tonnato, polpo con patate, filetto alla ligure, the classic focaccia bread, but then to accommodate the general demand for Italian food, we also have the general Italian favourites like pasta carbonara, arrabbiata, etc. so it’s a mixture of all that. But everything in the menu is our family’s recipe.
What is the specialty of your home town?
Our food is actually very simple; Ligure is where the mountain meets the sea, so our food is a mix between seafood and mountain food. aT home we cook a lot of rabbit, mushroom, slow-cooked meat, but also a lot of sea food.
Who’s in charge of the kitchen?
My mother is in charge, she’s the boss and she’s in charge of everything. She makes all the pasta by hand, the sauce, the tiramisu, all the important stuff! She’s very very busy, and shy too. She’s the opposite of me haha. I also help in the kitchen, mostly for the operations. But my mom, Rosy, she’s the face of the restaurant.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve come across so far?
First, definitely sourcing the ingredients. Because at the beginning, we couldn’t find a lot of things that we need. Second, to manage the place, but also to learn people’s taste. Because obviously we have a wide range of customers; Indonesian, expatriates, Italian, Korean, Japanese, so everybody naturally has a different taste. And we want all of them to be able to like the dish, without compromising the authenticity. We do this by for example, for the types customers that prefer that are not too salty, to provide the very salty ingredients like parmesan, on the side, etc. We also need to learn the art of balancing our cooking, without changing the recipe. This is the most challenging, but it is also the most interesting part.
What do you like the most about Jakarta?
For food, I am addicted to beef rendang! So I have my favorite warung which I go to and get rendang for my family on my day off. About the city itself, I really like the fact that I can ride my motorbike and explore myself. I go to the market, going to Jl. Surabaya, pasar burung, we always go with our Vespas. I am also involved in the Indonesian Heritage Society, together with the girls from the embassy, we do excursions, tours to the museum, so we try to participate and get involved in the city more.
What are your plans in the future?
We are planning to open a small shop in the front of our restaurant, where we sell our food, some Italian produce (cheese, wine, ready-to-boil fresh pasta) ready to go sandwiches, sort of like a bottega in Italy. We also want to introduce artisanal gelato from our friends, to sell in our bar. So you can just come here, eat a cone of ice cream, and go. Everybody is asking us if we’re going to open another one, but for now, there is still a lot to do with what we have here. So until we can completely delegate our roles, we are going to focus on this one.
How does it feel to run a business with your family in a foreign country?
Sometimes it’s hard because you bring home the work. So there are discussions that go on from early in the morning until the evening, so it’s not always easy, to be with each other all the time. But we also realize that it is also our strength; that we can support each other. So that when one of us has some problem, we know that we are together and we have eachother’s back and we are just happy to be complete as a family here.
What are your roles in the restaurant?
Daniel is the General Manager, he takes care of everything. I am more on the floor and the kitchen, I take care of the staff, dishes, catering, customer, hand in hand with my brother. My mom is in the kitchen, she’s the big boss. And my husband takes care all the technical; lighting, electricity, to the grill, because he’s of Argentinian descent, so he knows his grill.
After the interview, Stefania made me try many of her restaurant’s cooking and invited me to meet her whole family, including the legendary yet over so humble ‘Mamma Rosy’ who reminds me of a typical Italian mamma whose goal in life is to fill her family, friends and neighbours’ tummy with delicious food. For its warmth, smile, and most importantly, great food, Mama Rosy is nothing short of amazing.
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