Move over Lidia Bastianich. Watch out, Stanley Tucci. The Pasta Queen is becoming America’s most beloved and popular interpreter of Italian cuisine.
The Rome-born Nadia Caterina Munno, a Tampa-based influencer and food guru who only moved to the United States in 2015, has 11.5 million followers across social media platforms. On Instagram, she has 4.5 million, on Tiktok 3.8 million, on Youtube 1.2 million, on Facebook 1.1 million followers.
Munno got her start on TikTok in the midst of the pandemic, where she endeared herself to viewers with lively cooking videos focused on Italian cuisine and, more specifically, pasta. The flamboyant social media star is known for her catch phrase “just gorgeous,” which she says with flair when revealing her plated dishes. The mother of four has partnered with brands like Williams-Sonoma and Whole Foods and has a line of high-end copper cookware with Ruffoni.
Munno is about to publish her second cookbook with Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint; the previous edition was a New York Times bestseller. Her new 13-episode series on Amazon Prime features The Pasta Queen exploring four regions in Italy and getting down to her Italian roots to discover the magic of eating well in Italy. Every single ingredient on the show, and plenty of other Pasta Queen merch, is on sale, directly through the Amazon Prime site. Munno is an expert at digital marketing, and she is the first to admit that her success is not sudden or unexpected, but the result of years of hard work.
The new Amazon Prime series is produced by Munno along with Reese Witherspoon, whose Hello Sunshine production company is behind The Pasta Queen series. Witherspoon, recalled Munno, was one of her first celebrity fans on TikTok, along with Drew Barrymore, who also helped Munno to become widely known.
The Hollywood Reporter Roma caught up with The Pasta Queen in Tampa to discuss her favorite pasta, her rise as an influencer and why “Americans have a love for Italy and Italy has a love for Americans.”
The Pasta Queen is this amazing success. You’ve been on YouTube, you’ve got a New York Times best-selling book, The Pasta Queen, and now you’ve got a new series for Amazon Prime. What’s the new series about?
It’s called the Pasta Queen. I think the Pasta Queen TV show on Prime Video is the foundational story of a true Italian family. And it’s my story and my beginning and my journey into what I am today.
And it’s about good pasta, I imagine.
Amazing pasta.
What’s your favorite pasta as the Pasta Queen?
The puttanesca.
The puttanesca, which, translated to English, the puttanesca would mean sort of the prostitute’s pasta.
I call it the lady of the night’s pasta.
Oh, that’s much more elegant. And what are the ingredients?
My favorite — we’ve got tomatoes, anchovies, capers, olives, parsley. So, all the best of the best. And it’s paired with spaghetti, which is my favorite shape.
I love your show. What were you trying to tell the viewers in this show, not just about cooking pasta, but about discovering Italy?
I mean, each one of us, I feel, needs to awaken their senses and be a little bit more passionate and dramatic.
You certainly don’t skimp on the dramatic. Every time you introduce a new pasta dish, you end up saying, it’s gorgeous. So, let’s get back to the story of Nadia. You’re born in Rome. You grew up in Rome. You moved to England. You marry an Englishman. You only come to America, what, in 2015, 2016?
At the end of 2015.
And how do you become a YouTuber with millions of followers? What do you have now? 4 million on Facebook?
I think a total of 11.5 million followers across platforms on social.
Just how did that happen?
I’m pretty sure that you and I and many people can attest to the fact there’s no such thing as overnight success. I feel that Pasta Queen is the culmination of everything I’ve loved and learned by growing up. I started pasta when I’m in my mid-thirties. So, you can imagine I was an adult, I was a mother.
And you were an expert at digital marketing as well.
Digital marketer. I studied poetry, literature. I’m a storyteller at the theater in Rome, at Teatro Ghione at Via delle Fornaci. So, I studied improv. Not many people know I was in a movie when I was a kid. I did commercials in Rome. I think that everything you see in Pasta Queen is everything I’ve loved and I’ve prepared a lifetime becoming that.
And the Amazon Prime series is produced by yourself, along with others, and Reese Witherspoon of Hello Sunshine?
Yes.
How did you get to know Reese Witherspoon? Was she a fan of yours?
Yes, she was one of the first, you know, celebrities that supported me, that elevated me, that started following me. We’ve now known each other, of each other, for three years, and it was a pretty instantaneous love affair.
That’s great.
Then Drew Barrymore has been very supportive. I’ve been on the show many times. I think I was one of the first guests when the Drew Barrymore show launched. And she’s really helped me also with the book that became a New York Times bestselling book.
Tell me about the way you see Americans and pasta, because many of us Americans think of fettuccine Alfredo, but that’s a pasta that nobody really eats in Italy.
No, what we know it as in Italy is burro e parmigiano. Butter and parmigiano pasta.
Right.
Of course, in one of the episodes on Prime, I explain the true story of Alfredo and who he was and I even meet his granddaughters.
Wow.
So, you know, it’s a very interesting story and not many people know that fettuccine Alfredo was actually conceived in Rome.
It was conceived in Rome where there’s still a restaurant called Alfredo’s.
There’s a couple that claim to be the birthplace of the real fettuccine Alfredo and we uncover all the secrets.
But in terms of where you’re going with this, do you think that the Americans are rediscovering Italian food? Think of how Americans loved Lidia Bastianich, then you have Stanley Tucci who did an Italian food series for CNN. Now the Pasta Queen. What does that tell us about Americans and Italian food?
I think Americans have a love for Italy and Italy has a love for Americans. You know, we go back to the war. The Americans saved us during the Second World War. And I think for Italians, America is everything. It’s like iconic. It’s where [there is] Hollywood, the biggest stars, the best movies. And Americans love Italy because it’s such a more laid back, slow life. I think Americans are great, there’s so many great entrepreneurs.
But they need to take some time off, and go to Italy?
And when they go there, it’s dolce vita.
Dolce vita.
They fall in love, they bring their families, they look at the architecture. It’s very old and charming.
What’s your next project? The new book is called The Art of Italian Cooking.
Yeah, the new cookbook is coming Nov. 12.
Great. Who’s the publisher?
Simons and Schuster’s out of New York.
So, book, Amazon Prime and merchandise. What kind of merchandise can I get online? Where do I go?
So, the beautiful thing we did with Amazon is that there’s a storefront connected to the Amazon show. And you can shop everything or almost everything available that you see in each episode.
Really?
Yes.
The ultimate in product placement…
Products, ingredients, my cookbooks, my merch — everything can be shopped.
Okay, well, Nadia, I wish you all the best for the Pasta Queen. Thank you so much for speaking to us.
Thank you, Alan. You are just gorgeous.
So are you.
Ciao bello.
English (US) ·