A new takeaway business in Kentish Town, inspired by a mother's son, is set to train autistic young people for employment. Pizza Party, launched by Aparna Bangur, operates from a working kitchen on Regis Road and serves a short menu of crisp, London-style, veg-forward pizzas across north London via Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
A Mother's Inspiration and a Stark Employment Gap
Bangur was inspired by her 14-year-old son, Aarav, whose love of pizza led to the business idea. The motivation, however, stems from a broader concern shared by many parents of children with special educational needs (SEN): the desire for greater independence for their child. Government data highlights a significant employment gap, with only 34 per cent of disabled people with autism in the UK in employment, compared to 82 per cent of non-disabled people.
Bangur's goal is to help autistic young adults gain skills, confidence, and a path to employment through training in a supportive environment at Pizza Party. She said: "The questions you ask as a parent of an autistic child get bigger - where will he work? Where will he belong? How much independence will he be able to build? And who is going to make room for him when I’m not there to do it?"
Pizza Party Prep: An Internship Programme with Mencap
The Kentish Town kitchen is set to welcome its first group of trainees through Pizza Party Prep, an internship programme delivered in partnership with Mencap. The programme aims to teach food preparation, hospitality skills, kitchen routines, and customer service. For Aarav, pizza is more than just food; it is predictable, familiar, and comforting.
Bangur said: "In our house, every pizza is a party. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, how it is made or who joins in. If there’s pizza, it’s a party. People often tell me there must be a hidden superpower in there somewhere. Fourteen years in, we haven’t found a prodigy waiting to be discovered. What we have found is a boy with a full-bodied love of food – and pizza tops the list."
Real Work, Real Customers, Real Business
The internship is designed to provide real work experience. Bangur explained: "A pizza kitchen has rhythm. Tasks can be broken into clear steps. There is repetition, but also progression. You can see what you have made at the end of it. It is real work, for real customers, in a real business." By the end of the internship, trainees should have grown in confidence and familiarity with the expectations of a hospitality environment, as well as learning to make the brand's five-ingredient dough.
Bangur plans to employ trainees as the business grows, with a long-term vision to open a bricks-and-mortar neighbourhood pizzeria where autistic young adults can be seen learning, working, and earning. She said: "That is the bridge for us. Not pizza magically creating independence, but a working pizzeria creating the environment in which young people can learn, contribute, gain confidence and move towards employment."
Expanding Opportunities and Visibility
Beyond her own business, Bangur hopes to place trainees with other pizza brands and food businesses. "Our measure of success isn’t how many people finish the internship. It is whether that experience opens doors," she said. The brand has adopted bold, colourful visuals with a playful tone and serves customers across Camden, Islington, Barnet, Westminster, and the City of London.
Bangur added: "Autistic young people are already far too invisible in the world of work. Pizza Party should make them more visible. We want to be loud, colourful, commercially ambitious and genuinely desirable."
