BERGENFIELD, NJ - Chef Corrado Cervelli, the Napoli-born founder of Culto Italiano Pizzeria, has launched a private chef and dining experience serving Bergen County and beyond. The new service brings Corrado’s authentic Neapolitan cuisine directly into clients’ homes, offering fully customized menus, fresh pasta handmade from scratch, intimate dinner parties, corporate event dining, and hands-on Italian cooking classes.
The private chef launch marks the latest milestone for Culto Italiano, a business born out of the COVID-19 pandemic that has grown from a single mobile pizza oven into a full-service restaurant, mobile catering fleet, and now an intimate private dining operation - with multi-location expansion on the horizon.
A Business Born During the Pandemic
Corrado’s story begins in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. While the restaurant industry was reeling, he saw something others missed: families were still gathering, still celebrating, and still craving great food. He invested in a small mobile pizza oven and began serving his community during one of its most challenging chapters.
“We felt blessed to be able to feed people when everything else had stopped,” said Corrado. “I grew up in my family’s restaurant in Napoli. Cooking for people isn’t just what I do - it’s who I am. The pandemic reminded me why I fell in love with this work in the first place: bringing people together around a table.”
What started as a one-man operation quickly grew. Corrado expanded into a fleet of mobile pizza truck units, catering weddings, corporate events, and private parties across North Jersey. By December 2023, he and his team inaugurated the first Culto Italiano Pizzeria location at 49 West Church Street in Bergenfield, serving Neapolitan pizza and traditional Italian dishes to the surrounding communities of Dumont, New Milford, Tenafly, Cresskill, Teaneck, Englewood, River Edge, and Paramus.
The Team Behind the Vision
While Corrado founded Culto Italiano, the brand’s rapid growth has been a team effort. His wife, Jenny Javier, a proud Dominican native, has been involved since the very beginning, helping build the business from the ground up. And his close friend and fellow Neapolitan, Angelo Riccio, has been instrumental in bringing the restaurant’s vision to life.
Riccio’s own story mirrors Corrado’s deep roots in Neapolitan food culture. He began working in restaurants at the age of twelve, starting from the bottom - cleaning and assisting - before working his way into food preparation alongside master pizzaioli in gourmet restaurants across Naples. By seventeen, he had achieved his goal of becoming a pizza chef. He later moved from Naples to Milan to pursue new professional challenges before relocating to the United States at nineteen, where he and Corrado joined forces to open Culto Italiano’s first location.
“Angelo and I share the same roots and the same passion,” said Corrado. “We both grew up in Napoli, we both learned to cook the real way - by doing it, every single day. And Jenny has been the heart of this business since day one. None of this happens without them.”
A New Chapter: Private Chef Dining
The private chef service represents the next evolution for Culto Italiano. Corrado personally handles every detail - from menu design and ingredient sourcing to preparation, cooking, and plating - all in the client’s own kitchen. Every pasta dish features fresh pasta made from scratch by hand, and every menu is built from the ground up around the client’s tastes, dietary needs, and occasion.
The service is available throughout Bergen County and surrounding areas of New Jersey, with offerings that include intimate private dinners for date nights, anniversaries, and milestone celebrations; corporate and private event catering with bespoke Italian menus tailored to any scale and style; and hands-on cooking classes where participants learn to make fresh pasta, shape orecchiette, roll gnocchi, and master the art of true Neapolitan pizza from natives of Napoli.
“When I cook in someone’s home, it’s not catering,” Corrado said. “It’s the same thing my grandmother did for our family every Sunday in Napoli - except now I get to share that with families here in New Jersey. Every dish I make carries the memory of where I came from. I want people to taste that.”
What’s Next: Expansion and AMO Gelato
Corrado, Jenny, and Angelo are not slowing down. The team is actively working toward expanding Culto Italiano into a multi-location chain across New Jersey, bringing their brand of authentic Neapolitan dining to new communities throughout the state.
They are also preparing to launch AMO Gelato in Spring 2026 - a new gelato venture offering authentic Italian flavors alongside tropical fruit selections, all homemade. A mobile gelato cart will cater directly to private and corporate events, complementing Culto Italiano’s existing services and enhancing the complete Italian dining experience.
About Culto Italiano
Culto Italiano Pizzeria is a Neapolitan pizzeria and Italian trattoria located at 49 West Church Street in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Founded by Chef Corrado Cervelli, a native of Napoli, Italy, the business began as a mobile pizza operation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 before inaugurating its first brick-and-mortar location in December 2023. Together with his wife Jenny Javier and co-founder Angelo Riccio, Corrado has built Culto Italiano into a full-service operation offering dine-in, takeout, mobile pizza truck catering, and private chef experiences to clients across Bergen County and beyond. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
For more information, visit www.cultoitaliano.com. For restaurant inquiries, call (201) 648-0111. For catering and private chef bookings, call (917) 325-5619 or email corrado@cultoitaliano.com.
Media Contact
Name
Culto Italiano Pizzeria
Contact name
Corrado Cervelli
Contact phone
(201) 648-0111
Contact address
49 W Church St
City
Bergenfield
State
NJ
Zip
07621
Country
United States
Url
https://www.cultoitaliano.com/
