To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2019, HIT Training, the apprenticeship provider of choice in the hospitality industry, hosted a pop-up pizza kitchen in partnership with St Luke’s on Tuesday 5 March.

The pizza kitchen (headed up by Academy Principal Paul Mannering), was voluntarily staffed by apprentices studying with HIT Training, volunteers from St Luke’s, four of HIT Training’s Chef Academy leads and HIT London Operations Manager, Simon Lewis.

The team created and served over 250 pizzas free of charge to over 350 hungry and deserving people, supporting local charities and community groups. These included MenCap, St John’s, SoapBox, a Young Person’s shelter at Liverpool Street, a women’s refuge, St Mungo’s (for delivery to the homeless) and of course, the team from St Luke’s Community Centre and its visitors.

Three different flavoured pizzas were on offer; pepperoni, margarita and a vegetarian option. All of which were created using a pizza recipe taken from HIT Training’s Production Chef Academy Workshop, better known as the ‘seven a day pizza’ and cooked in St Luke’s wood-fired pizza oven. The recipe has been developed for school kitchen chefs as a way of getting children to eat healthier and consists of a base tomato sauce containing the following seven key ingredients: onion, garlic, carrot, leek, green pepper, courgette and tomato.