A renowned Italian chef has spent the day sharing traditional Italian recipes and skills with apprentice chefs at London’s largest food redistribution charity.
Francesco Mazzei visited The Felix Project’s Poplar depot and kitchen on Thursday 1st May to teach a masterclass to the charity’s first ever cohort of chef apprentices. The scheme is a first for The Felix Project aims to train four young people, who were previously not in education, employment or training to become commis chefs. The team, who are a third of the way into their apprenticeship, spend half their day helping to prepare meals in Felix’s Kitchen and the other half learning new techniques, recipes and everything needed to work in a professional kitchen. The chefs have also been catering at events and over the summer will be attending many more. Today Francesco helped them to master their chopping skills, make fresh pasta and create traditional Italian meals such as Cacio and Pepes, Amatriciana, Carbona and Gricia.
Mazzei, a well know TV chef, has been supporting The Felix Project since it started in 2016 and now has another link because of his Majesty The King. In November last year King Charles III opened the Coronation Food Project’s South London Hub in Deptford, which is being run by Felix. In February this year Francesco collaborated with actor Stanley Tucci and created an Anglo-Italian menu for a black-tie dinner hosted by King Charles.
Francesco said: “It is also fantastic to know King Charles is a supporter. It has also been good to come again and learn more about how the charity is growing and developing a whole new area of support to help young people find employment in the restaurant sector.”
On cooking today he added: “I was lucky enough to train in some amazing kitchens and be taught by a number of well-respected chefs, so I for me it is vital I now pass my skills on to the next generation of chefs and help these young people find employment, it would be amazing in the future to even see a Felix apprentice in my kitchen. They have been enthusiastic to learn, and it has been an honour to show them how to cook some of my favourite dishes. Despite owning restaurants all over the world, I still love cooking with Italian produce and it has been lovely to use these quality ingredients, celebrate what can be achieved and share my knowledge.”
During the lesson, the trainees asked Mazzei about his career and what it’s like to set up and work in some of the most celebrated kitchens around the world including Corinthia Palace in Malta, and he is opening his signature restaurant at the Corinthia in London later in the year.
San is one of the apprentices and said: “It has been great to have Francesco Mazzei teaching me how to cook, I have seen him on TV and now I can cook one of his traditional Italian meals. Being an apprentice with The Felix Project is life changing, I feel fulfilled and inspired to do something good with my life in the catering industry. I cannot believe what I am getting to do, it makes me so happy I could cry happy tears. I have an incredible team who I learn with every day and we all experience something new together, I feel like we have become a family. Toto our trainer is so keen for us all to succeed and without him we would not be here. I love being in the kitchen and learning as much as I can, but it’s also been really educational to find out all about surplus and see what good can be done with it and the difference Felix is making to people's lives and how I am contributing and playing my part.”
The event also included representatives from Alivini, who provided the ingredients for the team to cook with. Alivini is one of the UK’s leading Italian produce specialists and since February 2025 have been a supplier to The Felix Project. They have already donated over 2.6 tonnes of food, the equivalent of 6,214 meals.
Vincenzo Lerro, Sales Director from Alvini said: “We believe it’s really important that that any surplus food we have does not end up going to waste, so we are delighted to be working with The Felix Project. They are so easy to work with and it means we know people are getting to try a wide range of high-quality premium Italian foods. Seeing a world class Italian chef using our ingredients has been fantastic and we hope the trainee chefs can continue to make meals like this for people across London who are struggling.”
