Declan’s final year project was the Design, Analysis and Manufacture of a stone fired pizza trailer, which has become the premise of a part-time business – Notorious Wood Fired Pizza Co. that he has co-founded with another of this week’s Ulster University Graduates.
Declan, has once again successfully collaborated with Odhran Hassan, who graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in Business Management from the Coleraine Campus on Tuesday, of this week, in presenting a business case for the innovative design and securing funding from Enterprise NI.
Speaking ahead of his Graduation, Declan explained:
“During my Degree, I spent my industrial placement year in Telestack Ltd in a technical sales role using 3D CAD on a daily basis, a design based project appealed most to me personally.
"It gave me the opportunity to combine my two passions in life; engineering and cooking. As a young engineer, it was a challenging and rewarding project that facilitated a deeper understanding of the design process and also the relationship between design and manufacture; a relationship that is all too easy to forget when getting carried away with a fancy 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) model."
Last month, the Notorious Wood Fired Pizza Co. made its debut at the Roe Valley Speciality Market in Limavady, where it’s speciality stone fired pizzas proved to be very popular with local foodies.
Declan’s ‘first-class’ winning design will be popping up at local markets and events throughout the summer months across Northern Ireland and will be accepting bookings for private hire, catering for all manner of parties and events. Details of which are available on the Notorious Wood Fired Pizza Co Facebook and Instagram Accounts.
The pair are no strangers to running a successful business, with this being the second of their business ventures, the first of which was set up and run alongside their studies at Ulster University. Booze Bandit Cocktails, a mobile cocktail bar has become a popular fixture at festivals, hen parities and weddings throughout Ireland, demonstrating that their skills extend beyond their studies to incorporate culinary skills and mixology.