The protagonist of the new Hallmark Channel romantic comedy ‘Welcome to Mama’s’ is restaurant manager Amy (Melanie Scrofano). After she inherits the Italian restaurant Mama’s Trattoria in Brooklyn, New York, Amy teams up with a master chef Frank (Daniel di Tomasso) to relaunch the establishment and make her loved ones proud. Chef Mama Tucci is portrayed by Lorraine Bracco.

Both Scrofano and di Tomasso are Canadian-born actors but Lorraine Bracco is a real native New Yorker — born in Brooklyn, raised in Hicksville, Long Island. Bracco is best known for her roles as Tony Soprano’s (James Gandolfini) psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO’s hit series The Sopranos, and as mob wife Karen Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas with Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta.