Freehold-Area Chef Creates Dessert For National Nonprofit Gala

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ — Chef Joseph Settepani of Bruno's Bakery has a big order to fill this week. The bakery is providing his seasonal mandarin and chocolate dessert for hundreds attending a Wednesday night fundraiser in New York for Spoons Across America, a children's food education organization.

The Settepani family opened Bruno's Italian Bake Shop at 356 W. Main St. in Freehold Township in mid-November, not far from Freehold Borough. A gelateria is coming soon to the location.

Bruno’s Bakery is helmed by father-and-son team Biagio Settepani and Joseph Settepani. The family business originated with spots in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island - and now in Freehold Township.

While the family puts the finishing touches on the adjacent space dedicated to serving gelato, there is still lots of baking to do, including for the gala.

Spoons Across America is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating children, teachers, and families about the benefits of healthy eating, the organization says, and has as a national spokesperson the famed chef Jacques Pépin.

And Settepani's dessert for the fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club should not disappoint, says a spokesperson for the bakery.

The dessert will be a Mandarin orange and chocolate plated dessert featuring vanilla sable, Callebaut dark chocolate mousse, vanilla bean cream and Mandarin cremeux, said the spokesperson.

Settepani explained his concept for the dessert:

"I am keeping in season, namely with citrusy mandarins and Van Leer chocolate from Cocoa Barry, and paying homage to the essence of Sicily combining fruit and chocolate," said Settepani.

"Spoons Across America is an organization that educates youth on how to utilize sweets and savories in the kitchen from season to season, and this aesthetic is simply elegant, containing the combination of fresh fruit and chocolate to celebrate the season," he said.

Settepani decided to pursue a career as a pastry chef, with a passion for the pastry world and to follow and support his father’s legacy, the bakery says. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2012, and interned for Chef Gary Rulli in San Francisco at Emporio Rulli.

In 2013, he was selected to intern at the French Pastry School in Chicago as a pastry chef assistant, where he had an opportunity to work with renowned pastry chefs, according to his bio.

Since completing his internship at the French Pastry School, he has been overseeing and forming the creative ideas for Bruno's Bakery.

Spoons Across America connects with kids in schools to influence their eating habits through hands-on education about the connection to local farmers and the important tradition of sharing meals around the family table.

“The greatest thing you can do for your children is to cook and share food with them. The precious moments you spend together around the family table go way beyond the food itself; they lead to an understanding of the benefits of healthy eating and are the basis for good family relationships,” Pépin, national spokesperson of Spoons Across America, says in a statement from the organization.

The organization offers a curriculum that involves academics, hands-on experience, science and fun, with the ultimate goal to provide children better nourishment for body and mind.