Windsor, Ont. social media stars share the love of cooking to online audience

A Windsor grandmother and grandson are connecting over food, sharing their journey on social media. CTV Windsor’s Gary Archibald shares the story.

The love of family and cooking great food has made a Windsor duo a big hit on social media.

Over the past year, the love Justin Borrelli and his grandmother, referred to as Nonna, share for cooking has become an Instagram sensation. Their Instagram page showcasing their authentic Italian cuisine has 64,000 followers and counting.

And, they have ambitions for the future. A cookbook of Nonna’s Italian recipes (some learned when she was a young girl in Italy during World War II) could be in the future.

Nonna – now in her 90s – has dementia, but there is tremendous love and support from family and friends, and now thousands more online.

For the closeknit Borrelli family, the present is what matters most. Spending quality time with loved ones, family and friends – learning, sharing, laughing together – no price can be placed on such invaluable intangibles of life.

Part of the duo’s bond is cooking together, and for Justin, it’s important to recognize and carry on family traditions.

“I was noticing that her recipes, no one was going to carry these things on if I didn’t spend that time with her and learn these things,” said Borrelli.

“And these were things that from my childhood, I would look forward to on Christmas, I would look forward to on Easter Day, and the fact that those might not be there down the road if we didn’t learn these things from her. That’s why I started doing this.”