Patrick Liu was always interested in food, and had thought about being a chef when he was younger. When he was laid off last year from his job as a food technologist, he started dabbling in making homemade pizzas.
“I was laid off in my day job, but I used that time to kind of delve into more hobbies and work on myself,” he said.
Liu bought a pizza oven last year, and started experimenting with San Marzano tomatoes and double zero flour to make his own pizza dough and toppings.
“My obsession just grew,” he said.
After some initial disasters, he started trying them out on friends and family, many of whom were isolated and lonely.
“I looked around my local neighbourhood and I saw all the stores being bordered up, all the small businesses being wiped out,” he said.
“You know, we have been so isolated in our own bubbles during the pandemic, and we missed the social aspect over food. So I thought, ‘why don’t we do a food exchange?’ because we can’t go to each others houses and restaurants.”
His pizzas for friends and family become a hit.
After finding another job, Liu started making a dozen or more each weekend. But knowing how many people were struggling in Montreal, he decided he wanted to help his community through his pizzas.
After reading the story about Raphael André last January — the Indigenous homeless man who was found frozen to death in a Montreal portable toilet — he decided to give back.
“Stories like that just motivated me to do something for my community,” he said.
Inspired by other chefs he followed on Instagram, Liu created an online pop up concept called “Curfew Pizza” at the beginning of April.
Once a week, people can sign up online to win a free pizza. Each week, Liu chose between 12 and 20 names of people he makes pizzas for. While the pizzas are free, he encourages donations. People started donating anywhere from $5 to $50 just for signing up.
He set a goal of raising $2,000 for two local charities, including Resilience Montreal, which helps homeless Indigenous people.
“Resilience Montreal would not exist if it weren’t for people going out of their way to make the place work and to do things like this,” said David Chapman, who runs the program.
American comedian Jimmy Kimmel got wind of Patrick’s endeavor on Instagram, and promised to match his donations, up to $2,000.
“Instagram is a very powerful marketing tool and more and more people resonate with this concept,” Liu said.
Despite almost reaching his fundraising goal, and Montreal’s curfew officially over, Liu doesn’t plan on shutting down his pizza concept.
“Curfew pizza is far more than being about pizza and curfew. Really, it’s about the community, about the local issues we want to raise awareness for, that we want to try to make positive things,” he said.