Porridge off the menu at prison restaurant

High Down prison in Surrey has launched a corden bleu restaurant where inmates will prepare and serve the food. It appears to be every inch the fashionable new foodie destination, with a pan-European menu, mood lighting and contemporary design. But this is a restaurant where there is razor wire on the roof and the cutlery is, by necessity, made of plastic. "The Clink" at High Down prison in Surrey has its official launch yesterday. Inmates are trained to prepare and serve ambitious dishes as part of an innovative new project to rehabilitate offenders and help them win a job on release from jail.

The plush new facility, which was paid for by £270,000 in charitable donations, serves as the staff canteen. Due to security concerns, members of the public will not be able to book a table in the usual manner but may eat there if they are invited as corporate guests or charity volunteers.



"We wanted a realistic, contemporary restaurant so that prisoners who are trained here can go into the real world," said Alberto Crisci, catering manager at the 1,100 inmate jail. "Yes, we do have plastic cutlery but this is a prison. We would have preferred metal knives and forks but this is a unique dining experience."

For breakfast, prison officers at the medium security jail can chose from poached egg duchess served on a bed of spinach and encased in potato, for £2, or a high quality "full English", for £3.50. Lunch options include griddled feather steak with Béarnaise sauce or chicken ballotine stuffed with oxtail and black pudding at £4.50 a plate.



"I'm sure the staff will say 'Four pound fifty? Flipping heck'. But it is a very good price for food of this quality. We will have to keep prices reasonable because if there are no customers there's no training," said Mr Crisci, who began his career as a commies chef at the famous Mirabelle restaurant in London's Mayfair and later worked in five star hotels.

The staff politely force a smile at jokes about "porridge" and "serving thyme", having spent several years planning and building The Clink, which is located in the prison's former laundry store room.

There's a review of The Clink here.