Book ’em!
Restaurant training behind prison walls
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| Unmasking the Maoris Indigenous foods take center stage at Treetops Lodge & Estate |
Prison catering manager Alberto Crisci says his goal is to give inmates in the prison’s foodservice training program the opportunity to work in a “real” restaurant and to highlight their rigorous culinary training. Crisci was recently named Catering Manager of the Year by Radio 4’s Food Programme for the prison’s food, created by a team of 24 inmates. More than 75 prisoners have passed Crisci’s kitchen training program and gained full National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ). Crisci says he knows of no other prison anywhere that runs a restaurant fully staffed by inmates.
The current NVQ program, Crisci explains, trains inmates for “industrial” foodservice careers in prisons, schools, and other high-volume operations. Crisci wants to expand the program to include qualification in restaurant foodservice…and that’s where The Clink comes in.
Chefs will work in an architect-designed open kitchen, equipped with top-of-the-line appliances such as a Molteni cast-iron stove. “Jean-Christophe Novelli has one, and so does Gordon Ramsay,” Crisci says. “The kitchen is being fitted out to a better standard than most restaurant chefs could ever dream of. We’re aiming high.” All prisoners will wear specially designed chefs’ whites or waiter outfits.
The restaurant will be open Monday to Friday, serving breakfast and lunch to prison visitors and staff. But once a month, The Clink will serve invitation-only multicourse dinners for 100 people at a time. Invited guests will be local politicians and VIPs, press, restaurateurs, celebrity chefs, and members of the penal community such as parole officers. “We’ll invite anyone who can help prisoners get jobs after release,” Crisci says. “But you can’t just phone up for a table. The restaurant is behind prison walls so we need to know exactly who’s coming in.”
Despite the invite-only policy, Crisci has already been inundated with calls from would-be diners. “If you’ve got a good reason, you can come,” he says. “But if you’re just someone looking for a romantic evening with your wife, this isn’t the place. It will be exclusive. We want people to tell their friends, ‘I’ve got a table at The Clink three months from now.’ We want it to be a name-dropping thing.”Five television stations have expressed interest in filming the project.
In advance of the opening, Crisci and his crew have been serving monthly gourmet lunches, free of charge, for a dozen people at a time. Once the dinner service is up and running, guests will pay 15 to 20£ (U.S.$26 to U.S.$35) for a four course meal, which might include seared scallops with saffron/lemon caramel, roasted turbot with roasted tomato coulis, or fillet of beef with polenta and date/plum chutney. Crisci says he’ll run the restaurant at breakeven, offering a meal that would cost 50 to 60£ (U.S.$88 to U.S.$100) a head in an equivalent London restaurant.
“We have good funding, so the idea is not to make massive amounts of profit,” he explains. “The goal is to expand the training and build goodwill. Inmates take orders, cook food, and serve food to the people who may be locking them in for the night. We think it will help build good relationships.”
Each month, chefs will create and prepare an entirely new menu for just that night. There will be multiple choices for starters, fish, meat, and dessert. Cooks will have one month to plan the menu, develop the recipes, and perfect them before “opening night.” Approval is still pending for a drinks list, which Crisci hopes will include wine, Port, brandy, and a few apéritifs.At the present time, the NVQ training program offers full-time college-level training for 20 inmates at a time. Crisci says he knows of at least six graduates who currently work in the industry and two more who have moved to an “open” prison that allows them to work in hotels during the day. But unlike high-school culinary programs, for example, capturing future foodservice workers isn’t really the idea.
“Even if it doesn’t become a career, you’re teaching discipline and motivation,” Crisci says. “You’re showing people that they have skills. We’ve had people in the program who couldn’t read or write when they began, so we had to do everything orally. But somehow we get them through, and that gives them the confidence to go on to other things. They get used to enjoying work and learning. It helps them change their lives.” —Julie Mautner
