High Down prison restaurant scoops award at "food Oscars"

guardian.co.uk
7:30am Wednesday 13th July 2011

The company which runs the restaurant in HMP High Down has scooped an award at the food industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Alberto Crisci, founder and trustee of The Clink Charity, was presented with Education and Training Award last week’s annual Caterer and Hotelkeeper awards – The Cateys.

The Clink, located with High Down in Sutton, is the first and only commercial restaurant to be built inside a working British prison to date.

Since the restaurant was opened in 2009, more than 200 prisoners have gained NVQs in cooking, cleaning, and front-of-house service and many have been offered hospitality jobs after their discharge.

The Catey judges said: “We particularly admired the way Alberto got a new project off the ground and put together a development strategy that could enhance many industry sectors, succeeding in an area where some others had perhaps given up hope.”

The open plan kitchen can be viewed from the restaurant, which seats more than 100 people, offering the guests the opportunity to watch food preparation.

All of the furniture has been designed and constructed by prisoners and their poetry is displayed on the glass windows around the restaurant.

The Catey awards were presented at a ceremony at the Grosvenor hotel in London on Tuesday hosted by Cold Feet actor James Nesbitt.

The Clink Restaurant starts mentoring scheme

FM World 22 September 2011

The Clink Charity, a commercial restaurant operating inside a British prison, has launched an ex-offender career-mentoring scheme.

The Clink operates what it claims is the first “public access restaurant” in the prison regime, in Her Majesty’s Prison High Down, Surrey.

“Its logic is rooted in the power of rehabilitation to remedy the degenerative effect of prison sentences on those convicted,” according to The Clink.

Prisoners who have qualified as chefs and waiters, complete with practical kitchen and restaurant experience at The Clink, will receive professional support and guidance after leaving prison and start looking for work.

The mentoring scheme is being done in conjunction with Springboard, an educational charity.

Mentoring will include three or four visits by an assigned mentor during the prisoner’s last month in prison and include an interview with the prisoner’s prospective employer, if they have one.

The mentor will accompany the graduate to their accommodation, if required, and also take the graduate to work on his first day and arrange a travel card as required.

Also, the mentor will meet the graduate each week in their work place for three to six months.

Chris Moore, chief executive of The Clink Charity, said The Clink “has successfully trained 84 prisoners to date and this graduate mentoring scheme, launched in partnership with Springboard, will implement crucial employment mentoring in the months before and after a prisoner’s release”.