What would you do if you had to follow one of the world’s most popular TV journalists, and, right after, one of the biggest comedians/sitcom stars in the past two decades? Now, what would you do if they were actually there to introduce you?
Fifty-five-year-old Italian chef Bruno Serato, was put under such a test on December 11, when he was honored as one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of the Year at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Luckily, he handled it with enough grace and poise.
For more than six years, Serato, chef and owner of the Anaheim White House, a Northern Italian-style restaurant in Anaheim, has been feeding the less fortunate children of Orange County with freshly made pasta. The Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim is a place where the local youth—most from families living in nearby motels—go to play games, engage in sport activities, jam with fellow musicians and grab a hot meal (something the center did not originally have the means to do). Just last year, Serato was given the Humanitarian of the Year Award at the First Annual Anaheim International Film Festival. A year later, he’s on stage being introduced by two of the biggest names in television: TV anchor, Anderson Cooper, and comedian and TV star, Jerry Seinfeld.
“It was the most amazing night of my life,” Serato said. “All my family from Italy was there, also. That is a big part of my happiness.”
Maybe Serato was meant to be on stage to be viewed by millions of people. After all, he hails from Verona, Italy, the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Still, Serato remains the same person even after contacted by larger entities to help with his cause.
“Nothing changed for me, because I was Bruno yesterday, I’m Bruno today and I’m Bruno tomorrow,” Serato said. “This is just the beginning, because we really have a lot of major companies who have contacted me who want to help with my project, which is feeding the children of America.”
To think, it’s been eight years since Serato created Caterina’s Club, an organization to help needy children just like the ones he’s been feeding all these years. Named after his mother, the organization keeps the spirit of the woman who once saw a child at the Boys and Girls Club of Anaheim eating a bag of potato chips, and immediately instructed her son to cook pasta for the kids. After the holiday season, Serato plans on sending a letter to every Boys and Girls Club nationwide to follow what he has started.
Overall, it’s been a good year for the people at Anaheim White House, even for its manager, Sylvano Ibay. Ibay, the winner of the 2011 Southern California Restaurant Writers Manager of the Year Award, said the exposure of the restaurant and its cause has increased over the year. Now they’re hoping to eventually help these motel children and their families to move out of the motel system and into low-income housing.
“Obviously, it comes with a little bit more work, but it’s all part of what Caterina’s Club is all about,” Ibay said. “We’re happy to see where it’s going and we want it to continue to grow, because it’s not going to end.”
For interested donors, you can send your donations to the Anaheim White House Restaurant:–
ATTN: Caterina’s Club for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Anaheim
887 South Anaheim Boulevard, Anaheim, CA 92805
Also, You can donate a package of pasta whenever you’re at the restaurant which has a basket displayed especially for ingredients.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(OCIE Dec 23-29, 2011 RedCarpet pg.2)
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