Italian chef extraordinaire Bruno Serato has made his mark in a most Catholic way: he has formed an important project that has helped to feed hundreds of thousands of the hungry throughout the country. And he used his famed restaurant, the Anaheim White House restaurant in Anaheim, California, as a way to fund this charity, the Caterina’s Club.

Serato came into the culinary world as a teen when he worked in his parent’s trattoria in San Bonifacio, a small town near Verona in Northern Italy. “When I was 14 until I was 20 years old,” he said, “I worked with them in the kitchen and then as my mom’s assistant. That was the first beginning of my career. My mom was the best teacher… When I was 14, I knew that cooking is what I wanted to do.”