Hobby to home business: Ornella’s Kitchen

Inspired by the power of social media and Ornella’s determination to achieve something positive amid the challenges of lockdown, people came from across the city to her home in Audenshaw to collect exquisitely prepared Sicilian dishes left on a bench outside her house. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Lockdown was a crazy time, and focussing on something, like we did with cooking, led your head away from the bad situation that was all around. When I look back now, I think, ‘I couldn’t do that again.’ It was so intense, but I wanted to do it,” she says.

“It’s impossible to say how many hours I worked each day. Sometimes, it was an all-night thing. Before the weekend, I used to wake up at 6am and go to bed at 2am, working non-stop. Now, even on my day off, I’m doing something for the restaurant. I’m very busy.”

Two years later, she opened a delicatessen in Denton that has become a magnet for takeaway customers from the lockdown era, locals seeking good-quality meals, and foodies from across Manchester. Crowned Affordable Eats winner at the 2023 Manchester Food and Drink Awards, Ornella’s Kitchen is a restaurant for our times.

Denton calling

Customers travel from all points of Manchester’s compass to Ornella’s Kitchen, located near Brother UK’s headquarters in Tameside and chosen as much for its proximity to her home as the potential, now fully realised, of its compact premises. While Ornella cooks in the basement kitchen, the first-floor restaurant is packed.

Sequestered below the diners, surrounded by utensils and ingredients, Ornella rarely has an opportunity to receive direct feedback. Faithful reports from her front-of-house team and the propensity of satisfied customers to share their experiences on social media keeps her abreast of the mood in the restaurant. Good news travels fast.

“We have a lot of returning customers. People who came to us in lockdown for a takeaway now come back on a weekly basis. New people discover us on social media, on Instagram. We get great feedback. People travel from Prestwich and Wilmslow. They absolutely love the food,” she says.

“In the two years since we’ve been open, it’s crazy how many nice restaurants have opened around us. Burgeries, a takeaway considered one of the best in the UK, opens next month. They texted us and said: ‘We’ve been looking in Denton. There’s been a big hype since you opened.’”

Ornella denies being a catalyst (“Oh, I don’t know,” she laughs. “It’s crazy thinking that way, but, if it is that, I’m very happy about it!”) but small revolutions, particularly in a district’s character, begin organically. Manchester’s next foodie hot-spot might just be an unassuming suburb on its east side.

The personal touch

Cooking is in Ornella’s blood. Her late father, Antonio, had a restaurant in her native Sicily, and she dreamed of a restaurant of her own. Dishes such as Arancini, fried rice balls containing mozzarella cheese, and Pappardelle, a sausage spiced with fennel seed served in a rich sauce, are cherished.

The desire to feed friends and family during a time of unprecedented restrictions became a business. Operations necessitated by lockdown rapidly outgrew her home kitchen where space was limited and ingredients purchased for her own use were often appropriated. She acknowledges the challenges of running a culinary enterprise from home.

“It’s definitely not easy. Sometimes, when your business and life merge in your house, you feel like you never have a break, which is common if you work from home. You use your kitchen and fridge. You use things you need for yourself daily. That side is hard,” she says.

“But at the same time, it’s great because you feel that it’s yours. Allowing people to try food prepared in your own kitchen is really, really personal. That’s what happened during lockdown when customers collected from our house. We still have a relationship with a lot of our lockdown customers.”

The personal touch is a valuable quality. To have forged such a bond under lockdown conditions, when social distancing added a new meaning to contactless payments, and food was boxed and bagged and left on a bench to be collected, rather than passed from hand-to-hand, speaks volumes for Ornella’s hospitality.

Passion project

Ornella believes firmly in the adage that doing what you love is not working. Work-life balance is an alien concept, but for all the right reasons. With the support of partner Jamie, the restaurant, Antonio, now four, and his recently arrived sister, 10-month-old Cora, remain constants in her hectic existence.

Her success has a fairy-tale quality. She moved to Manchester to improve her English, giving herself a year. Meeting Jamie changed everything. Ten years, two children and one restaurant later, she returns to Sicily only for holidays. Turning a hobby into a home business provided a welcome, if unexpected, twist.

“When we started, we cooked for family and friends, but they started sharing on social media, and friends of friends wanted to try as well. The power of social media is crazy. From there, we thought, ‘Why not?’ It started as a hobby, and now it’s our job,” she says.

“I’m always thinking of ways to improve, to create better dishes, so I’m never, ever ‘off’, but it’s great. It’s so exciting and stimulating because it’s your own place. You’re doing something for yourself and your family, and you think, ‘That’s my kids’ future,’ so it’s nice thinking that way.“

Passion is the motivating force in Ornella’s life and business. She loves Manchester, the Pollen bakery in Ancoats where she worked before lockdown, and, naturally, cooking. For people aspiring to turn a hobby into a home business and beyond, there can be few greater sources of inspiration than Ornella’s Kitchen.