A pizzeria is celebrating its performance in the finals of this year’s national pizza awards.

Village Pizza Kitchen, in Hurstpierpoint, secured second place in two prizes.

It came second in two of the three main categories, winning silver medals for national pizza of the year and national pizza chef of the year.

“We are absolutely over the moon to have won these awards,” said Jo Malone, director of Village Pizza Kitchen.

“We are all super chuffed. We have been going less than two years so for us to have come second in the whole country for two awards is a huge achievement.”

The pizzeria opened at the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic in December 2020.

Jo’s background is in marketing and she was made redundant because of the pandemic.

She said: “I decided to do something completely different and start this new business in the village I am from.”

“We are the only artisan pizza place in the area, so it is great to have our successes recognised.”

The Argus:

The pizzeria’s head chef, Simonetta Held, came second in the national pizza chef of the year award.

She fought off stiff competition, producing six pizzas using sponsor’s products for the technical and vegan rounds and using Village Pizza Kitchen’s own ingredients for the signature round.

Simonetta is originally from Italy, but now lives in Crawley and has been with Village Pizza Kitchen since it launched.

Jo said: “She is a big personality but in the competition she was really nervous.

“We are so thrilled for her, she has made us all proud.”

The Argus:

The winning pizza is called the Game Changer and is made with Village Pizza Kitchen's 24-hour cold proofed dough, a tomato sauce with a secret recipe and Somerset mozzarella.

It is topped with locally sourced wild venison from Calcot Farm in Ashurst, garlic, juniper, rosemary, sun blushed tomatoes, organic British Bocconini mozzarella and kale from Selsey.

The pizza was developed especially for the competition and will be featured on the menu as a special from this week.