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Caterina’s Girls Club serves hungry children The most meaningful meals that restaurateur Bruno Serato serves up are not the exquisite portions at his high-end Anaheim White House. It is the meal service he provides to as many as 70 children each night who live in a nearby motel unit. Many more are fed at the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim as they wait to be picked up by their parents. And Serato’s charitable arm, Caterina’s Girls Club, helped purchase a 12-passenger van to pick up the motel kids and take them to the Boys & Girls Club for afternoon activities and dinner. Motel children typically are nearly homeless, living with their financially strapped families and moving from place to place. Food becomes a commodity, and Serato has long recognized this. His Caterina’s Girls Club, founded in 2003 in honor of his mother who lives in Italy, is a daily reminder that there is more to his life than the daily profit from his restaurant’s loyal, and in some cases famous, patrons. When his mother, during a visit, heard of several children missing meals, she asked her son: “‘Maybe you should give them food every night. How can you let the kids not eat at nighttime?’ The same night, we started to prepare meals (for the kids),” Serato says. “Sometimes I go eat with them; after you see them eat, you know it’s the right thing to do. Serato was one of sister publication OC METRO Magazine’s Hottest 25 People of Orange County last October. The New York Times last year gave space to one of his signature dishes – The Romeo Gigli Salmon Chocolat. Madonna, Brad Pitt and other celebrities have visited the restaurant, often when they are taking young ones to nearby Disneyland. The Anaheim White House, one of Orange County’s most distinctive dining establishments, is within a restored mansion dating from 1909. It is well known for its Northern Italian/French cuisine. Rumor is that Serato might expand to a second restaurant when the high-rise community, Platinum Triangle, arises in the next few years from a tract of land next to Angel Stadium. He is busy, and famous, but not too much to forget hungry faces. “If we all do something, we can make a difference in a child’s life,” he told OC Family Magazine Managing Editor Sandy Bennett last fall. “And if you change the life of a child in a better way, most probably the child will grow up a better person, also.” Serato, a Huntington Beach resident, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of his restaurant next year. Caterina’s Girls Club Restaurateur Bruno Serato’s nonprofit, founded in February 2003, benefits underprivileged youth in Anaheim. • Through the club, as many as 70 children are served a hot, nutritious meal each night at the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim. • From the first $30,000 donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim by Serato, the club: bought a 12-person van with matching funds from Change a Life Foundation to transport hotel children to the club for activities and dinner; provided piano lessons to several children for six months; provides 1-on-1 tutoring at the club for 200 children. • Information about Caterina’s Girls Club: anaheimwhitehouse.com/aboutus/caterina.php • For donations: Make checks payable to Caterina’s Girls Club and send to Anaheim White House Restaurant at 887 S. Anaheim Blvd; Anaheim CA. 92805 About the man Restaurateur Bruno Serato has been honored as Citizen of the Year, presented by Cypress College Foundation and the city of Anaheim. Last year, he was honored by the Southern California Restaurant Writer’s Association as Humanitarian of the Year; he earned a similar award as well, the Cornerstone Humanitarian of the Year by the National Restaurant Association, given for ongoing charitable and community programs. Serato, who founded his restaurant in 1987, came to the United States from Verona. In 1980, his sister, residing in Orange County, convinced the then 25-year-old to move here to take advantage of an opening at a French restaurant, La Vie en Rose in Brea. |
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