Apprentices are serving up a new dish

Press Release

19/03/2010

Barking Apprentice Event Launch 10am - 12.30pm, Monday 22 March at Arboretum Place, opposite Barking Town Hall

Training for Life is offering the people of Barking and Dagenham a chance to preview the Barking Apprentice, a new eating and dining experience for the town centre.

Staff and apprentices from the charity, Training for Life, will be on hand to answer any questions that people may have about this exciting new development. There will be complimentary canapés and cookery demonstrations with chefs from the charity's established training restaurant, Hoxton Apprentice in London's Shoreditch.

Barking Apprentice will be an exciting new hospitality and catering venue for the town. The restaurant will be the place to enjoy delicious food and catch up with friends and family over a drink. The food we cook, will be modern British cuisine, with a touch of the exotic, driven by a passion to serve fresh produce, purchased wherever possible, from local suppliers.

100 per cent of our net profits from the money you spend in the Barking Apprentice café, restaurant, or bakery, will be used to support unemployed people to become the chefs, waiters, and restaurant managers in the growing hospitality industry.

The project has been two years in development. Training for Life was approached in 2008 by Barking and Dagenham Council, with a view to establishing a social enterprise eating venue modelled on their celebrated restaurant, Hoxton Apprentice, and the heritage award winning Dartmouth Apprentice restaurant in Devon. Aspiring to become an equally iconic landmark, Barking Apprentice is set to open in June 2010.

Councillor Mick McCarthy, cabinet Member for Regeneration said, "The Barking Apprentice is a welcome addition to the work that the Council has done in totally remodeling Barking town centre. The restaurant will add to the vibrancy of the area.

Commenting upon the project, Gordon D'Silva, Chief Executive of Training for Life, said: ' I am deeply excited Barking Apprentice, not only will it be a fantastic drinking and dining destination but it is also a wonderful opportunity to transform the lives of local people who have less. The development of this project has been a fantastic team effort from all involved in particular London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, Redrow, the developer and our shop fitters Wates.'

You are invited to send a reporter and photographer

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Notes for editors

. The council investment will create 400 apprenticeships over the next ten years

. Its location in the middle of the town centre will be a useful addition for residents and for our businesses. The Barking Apprentice will be the first of many such businesses that we hope to attract to the borough

. Barking apprentice is the third social enterprise restaurant to be founded by the charity, Training for Life. Training for Life seeks to tackle the issue of unemployment and poverty through an entrepreneurial approach. It works with some of the most vulnerable and excluded groups within society; people from diverse backgrounds, which, for whatever reason, have faced barriers to work and, consequently, become trapped in poverty.

-For more information contact:

Ben Anderson

Training for Life

Tel: 020 7749 2820

Mob: 07825 985 873

Email: Ben@trainingfrolife.org

Zerin Atma

Training for Life

Tel: 020 7749 2803

Mob: 07957 451 165

Email: Zerin@trainingforlife.org

Alternatively go to websites: www.trainingforlife-city.org.

Press Release Number: 11865

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Apprentices are serving up a new dish

Press Release

Press Release Number: 11865

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