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Young Chef

A Warwick, Rhode Island, teenager Catherine Amoriggi gives back to her community, using her love of cooking to fill plates across the state.

Catherine’s mother says: “Food has always been a huge part of our family. Even when she was a baby, she would stand up on a chair and watch me breading the chicken cutlets. She said it was her cooking chair.” Moreover, when Catherine was 5 years old, she liked to pretend that she was the host of her own TV cooking show. She made up a voice and would tell “her viewers” to gently fold in the ingredients, sample the food, and experiment with the ingredients.

As a high school freshman, Catherine learned about people in her community who did not have enough to eat. She was inspired to find a way to share her passion for cooking that would do more than simply satisfy tastes. The teenager catered a dinner party for more than 80 people and asked that each guest give at least $20, with all the money going to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. They raised over $3,000.

In 2013, her junior year, Catherine created the 365 Food Calendar, which raised $9,000 for the food bank. The calendar included facts about hunger and featured recipes she developed, such as the Bourbon Maple Mousse for November.

When she was 18 years old, Catherine and her recipe for Pancetta Sweet Pea Fritters were featured in the book Future Chefs: Recipes by Tomorrow’s Cooks Across the Nation and the World. She participated in the Food Networks Chopped Teen Tournament show. “I didn’t get picked,” she says, “but that’s OK — I don’t have a competitive edge.” That acknowledgement is another example of how Catherine Amoriggi’s love of food is substituted only by her deep concern for others. “Food is the greatest bond. It can start a conversation, heal the sick, or feed a soul,” she says, “No matter what I do in my life, food and helping people will always be part of who I am.”