First Dates Fred to open prison restaurant

The restaurant at HMP Berwyn will see the staff canteen at the prison turned into a high-street style restaurant where prisoners will cook and serve the food.

It is the brainchild of the French restaurateur star of Channel 4's hit show, who started charity The Right Course around five years ago.

The charity aims to transform prison staff canteens, providing prisoners with a valuable opportunity to gain industry-recognised qualifications and experience.

The Right Course has teamed up with DesignLSM, a hospitality interior design agency, to design the new restaurant and training space within HMP Berwyn Prison in Wrexham, following a successful refurbishment of the staff canteen at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in 2021.

The new restaurant at HMP Berwyn, is due to be open in May 2023.

Fred said: "I started working with disadvantaged kids around five years ago and I had the idea to set up a new charity to transform the staff mess in prisons into training restaurants - restaurants you'd see on the high street.

"The prisoners run the restaurant, they run the front of house and they cook. The customers are the staff of the prison."

He added: "Between 40 and 60 per cent of people re-offend when they leave prison, but if you have a job upon release you're less likely to re-offend.

"And there's such a huge staff shortage in the hospitality industry. It's a no-brainer. Every single prison has a staff mess, so instead of running that like a canteen or cafeteria, run it like a school; a training restaurant.

"There are about 90 prisons in the UK so possibly not all are going to be suitable, but we have three sites now and we're about to open a site in (HMP) Berwyn in Wales.

"We want to roll it out and open more restaurants in prisons."

Holly Hallam, managing director at DesignLSM added: “Continuing our support of this fantastic initiative, DesignLSM are thrilled to be bringing their expertise of strategic planning and immersive design to this exciting project.

"The Right Course are not only having an incredibly positive impact on the lives of inmates, but they are also tackling the ever-present struggle in hospitality staffing that we are facing with many of our clients. We are very proud to be involved.”