The Clink (restaurant)

Description

The first Clink Restaurant opened in 2009 at HMP High Down in Surrey, when Alberto Crisci MBE, then catering manager, identified the need for formal training, qualifications and support for prisoners in finding a job after release. Alberto is supported by the (then) Governor of HMP High Down, Peter Dawson, and founder trustees Finlay Scott, Kevin McGrath, Lady Edwina Grosvenor, Tim Wates and Kate Quigley-Ruby.

In 2010 Christopher Moore was appointed the charity’s first CEO as part of a long-term plan to expand the prisoner training concept across Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Within this role Christopher Moore focuses on increasing awareness of the work and skills being developed across The Clink training schemes as well as garnering support from the catering industry and securing the necessary funds for expansion.

In spring 2012 the Bromley Gardens opened at HMP High Down with six poly tunnels and a glass house offering space for prisoners to train in horticulture whilst producing up to three quarters of the vegetables and herbs used in The Clink Restaurants. As part of High Down’s commitment to sustainability, 50 tonnes of food waste is composted each year and 2,500 litres of used fryer oil is converted into bio-diesel to run the prison vehicles.

The second restaurant opened at HMP Cardiff in September 2012. This was the first Clink restaurant to be located outside prison walls. It works alongside HMP Prescoed to offer over 30 Category D prisoners from HMP Prescoed and HMP Cardiff full-time work within the kitchen, restaurant and gardens.

In November 2013 Clink Events was launched by the charity to provide external catering for cocktail parties and receptions. Canapés are freshly prepared in Clink Restaurant kitchens by prisoners and The Clink engages with like-minded charities, such as Centrepoint – a UK charity for homeless young people – to train their homeless clients in food service skills.

The third Clink Restaurant opened at HMP Brixton in February 2014. The Brixton restaurant follows The Clink’s Five Step Programme, which has been successfully implemented at both of the previous Clink Restaurants, to educate prisoners and equip them with the skills and tools to secure employment upon their release.

In May 2014 The Clink entered into a women’s prison for the first time, launching The Clink Gardens at HMP Send, Surrey. The project provides prisoners with the opportunity to gain experience and City & Guilds NVQs in horticulture. Prisoners grow, cultivate and harvest crops and rear chickens for eggs. The produce is transported to The Clink Restaurants at other prisons for use in the training kitchens.

Building started in September 2014 at the fourth prisoner training restaurant, The Clink Restaurant at HMP Styal in Cheshire, to transform the century old, disused chapel within the prison grounds into a 100 seat restaurant with private dining spaces for up to 24 people.

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Styal officially opened to the public on 30 April 2015 as the first Clink Restaurant in a women’s prison and the first in the north of England.

In October 2016, The Clink released The Clink Quick & Easy Cookbook, the charity’s second published cookbook. The cookbook is another strand of fundraising for the charity, which alongside The Clink’s Canape cookbook will contribute to The Clink’s mission of operating 20 prisoner training projects by the end of 2020.

The Future

The Clink Charity operates Clink Restaurants in partnership with Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Together we are focused on the goal of having 20 Clink training projects in operation by 2020, releasing 1,000 graduates a year into employment.

To do this the Clink Charity needs to raise £5 million and relies on generous donations from grant-making trusts, the general public and businesses.

Reception

The Clink Restaurants are registered catering colleges regulated by OFSTED, who gave ‘outstanding’ reports following visits to High Down (2012 / 2015) and Brixton (2015).

Upon the opening of the first Clink Restaurant in 2009, Nick Harding ate at the High Down restaurant as part of a review for The Independent. Summarising his experience, Nick gave the verdict “Excellent food, value and service. Interesting surroundings. I will be dining there again, if I get security clearance"

Giles Coren, columnist and restaurant critic for The Times visited the Brixton restaurant and wrote: “The Clink is doing great things for prisons, people, local communities and the reputation of Britain’s catering industry, and I salute it unreservedly.”

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Cardiff was named the tenth best rated fine dining establishment in the UK in the 2015 Travellers’ Choice Awards, announced by TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site.

The Clink's Five Step Programme

The Clink’s Five Step Programme – Recruit, Train, Support, Employ and Mentor – dramatically reduces the reoffending rate of those who have completed the training programme.

Prisoners with six to 18 months of their sentence left to serve are recruited for the programme and receive full-time training in order to reach the required level to succeed in the hospitality industry upon release.

Whilst the food offers a contemporary twist on traditional British cuisine, with each menu being designed around locally sourced and seasonal ingredients, the restaurants also provide an educational insight into the positive effect of rehabilitation and helps change public perceptions of prisoners.

Awards

• Catey Award for The Best Education and Training Programme

• London Peace Award for Diversity

• The Springboard Charity Award for Diversity

• The Longford Prize

• Footprint Award for Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility

• The Good Egg Award

• Time & Leisure Magazine Food Award for Readers’ Restaurant of the Year

• The Craft Guild of Chefs Award for Education Excellence

• The ACE Sustains Corporate Award

• Finalist in the Guardian Charity Awards

• Surrey Life Best Local Menu of the Year

• M&IT Awards bronze award for ‘Best UK Unusual Venue’

• Cost Sector Catering Public Sector Award

• Surrey Life ‘Services to the Community’ Award

• TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards 10th Best Restaurant in the UK

• The Sustainable Restaurant Association 3 Star Award

• Eat Out Eat Well Award

• Surrey Life Food & Drink Awards ‘Pride of Surrey’

• Caterer.com ‘Ambassador to the Industry’

Ambassadors

The role of a Clink Ambassador is to provide a high level of exposure for the charity, undertake various ambassadorial roles and host fundraising events.

Group

• Albert Roux OBE, KFO– group chef ambassador

• Vic Laws MBE – group restaurant ambassador

• Graham Bamford – group mentoring ambassador

• Hugh Merrill MVO – group communications ambassador

• Hugo Llewelyn – group fundraising ambassador

• Alison Cathie – group publishing ambassador

• Dan Snow - Group Communications Ambassador

• Daniel Galmiche - Group Sustainability Ambassador

High Down

• Antonio Carluccio OBE – chef ambassador

• Adam Simmonds – chef ambassador

• Andrew Etherington – restaurant ambassador

• Peter Bramich – restaurant ambassador

• Julie Peasgood - Sustainability Ambassador

• Kate Quigley-Ruby - Restaurant Ambassador

Cardiff

• Matt Tebbutt – Chef ambassador

• Will Holland – Chef ambassador

• Sir Gareth Edwards CBE – restaurant ambassador

• John Retallick – restaurant ambassador

• Elspeth Dale – restaurant ambassador

Brixton

• Cyrus Todiwala OBE, DL, DBA – chef ambassador

• Giorgio Locatelli – chef ambassador

• Esher Williams – restaurant ambassador

• Silvano Giraldin – restaurant ambassador

Styal

• Thomasina Miers - Chef Ambassador

• Lisa Allen - Chef Ambassador

Clink Events

• Peter Avis - Events Ambassador

• Jules Heckman-Hughes - Events Ambassador

Send

• John Amand - Horticulture Ambassador

The Clink Restaurant at HMP High Down

The Clink Restaurant at HMP High Down was officially opened in 2009, as the first public restaurant to open within a UK prison. Sitting within the walls of the category B prison, the restaurant seats 94 diners whilst also offering a private dining room for exclusive hire which seats 20. A projector and AV facilities are also available for meetings, conferences and presentations.

Up to 30 prisoners at a time work a 40-hour week, training towards gaining nationally recognised City & Guilds NVQs in food preparation and food and beverage service, before returning to their cells in the evening.

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Cardiff

The restaurant is within the grounds of HMP Cardiff, a category B prison, and seats 90.

The Clink building was originally built as the visitor check-in centre for friends and family visiting prisoners at HMP Cardiff and was also used as a staff mess, but had been left vacant for a few years before The Clink Charity were granted use of it. The Clink Charity took possession of the building in January 2012 and spent eight months converting it into The Clink Restaurant, adding an outdoor seating area and an open plan kitchen.

Situated outside the prison walls, the restaurant is a flagship example of a unique, charitable project that is committed to reducing reoffending rates in Wales with the support of the general public.

30 category D prisoners from HMP Prescoed are transported to The Clink restaurant each morning where they work a 40-hour week, gaining nationally recognised City & Guilds NVQs in food preparation and food and beverage service, before returning to the prison at the end of the working day.

The restaurant also offers a private dining room which is available for exclusive hire seating 25 and has a projector and AV facilities for meetings, conferences and presentations.

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Brixton

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Brixton opened in February 2014 as the third restaurant operated by The Clink Charity in the UK. The restaurant sits within the walls of HMP Brixton, a category C prison, and seats 120 diners.

The old Governor’s House, built in 1819 and situated within the grounds of the prison, has been dramatically transformed into The Clink Restaurant and offers five private dining rooms are available for exclusive hire, seating between 12 and 20, with a projector and AV facilities for meetings, conferences and presentations.

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Styal

The Clink Restaurant at HMP Styal sits within the grounds of the women’s prison and seats 120 diners. The Clink Charity, in partnership with HMPS, converted the disused St Andrews chapel that was built in 1915 into The Clink restaurant. The chapel was used by prisoners for weekly services until it became just a storage area.

In September 2014 work started to refurbish the chapel and transform it into a stylish dining space complete with vaulted ceiling, original organ pipes and stained glass windows. In April 2015 the restaurant officially opened its doors to the public as the first Clink Restaurant to open in a prison for women. The old prison chapel now offers the facilities for up to 30 women prisoners to work a 40-hour week whilst gaining nationally recognised City & Guilds NVQs in food preparation and food and beverage service.

Two private dining rooms are available for exclusive hire which can seat between 8 and 20 people. A projector and AV facilities are available for small businesses and groups to hold meetings, lunches and events. The entire venue is available for exclusive hire on evenings and weekends.

The Clink Gardens

The Clink Gardens is another strand of The Clink’s innovative prisoner rehabilitation programme, training prisoners in horticulture at HMP High Down since June 2012 and HMP Send since June 2014.

The prisoners working in the gardens receive formal training and gain hands-on experience in order to achieve their City & Guilds NVQ in horticulture.

75% of the vegetables, herbs and eggs used in the restaurants at HMP High Down and HMP Brixton are produced by the women and men training at The Clink Gardens and the 100 Rhode Island Red chickens they also care for.

Clink Events

Clink Events launched in 2014 to offer external catering services for private cocktail parties and receptions.

Food is prepared by prisoners in training, before being delivered in refrigerated vehicles to the event venue.

To enable Clink Events to serve the food prepared by the trainee chefs, partnerships with other like-minded social enterprises such as Centrepoint, the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people, have been established. This extends The Clink’s training to vulnerable young adults, boosting their confidence and aiding their employability.

Service staff are given intense training in order to gain their level 1 NVQ in hospitality and to equip them with the skills and ability to serve guests efficiently and professionally.