It’s uncommon in South Jersey to find a restaurant where the owner is also the executive chef, unless of course, you’re at Allora. Based in Marlton, Mark Berenato’s 130-seat Italian eatery is a South Jersey Magazine Golden Fork winner and was dubbed a “real deal Italian restaurant” by nj.com.

It must be in Berenato’s blood. His maternal grandmother was a Calabrian home cook who made everything from scratch, and his paternal grandfather was a Sicilian farmer, who canned tomatoes in the basement. Many years before the chef was born, his grandfather owned a little luncheonette in Hammonton on the Black Horse Pike. Years later, Berenato’s own first job in a kitchen was washing dishes at a place called Scrapinato’s, also on the Black Horse Pike.