Alberto Crisci
Chris Wood, Monday 26 December 2011
It was a cold, grey, winter day. The walls of HMP High Down in Banstead looked more forbidding than usual.
After showing my ID I was ushered through a sequence of doors and gates, into an enclosed, inhibiting area where I could almost feel the despair. Yet, within seconds, the mood changed again. I was stepping into the bustle of what is arguably the nation’s most exclusive restaurant, The Clink, the brainchild of chef Alberto Crisci. The Clink is a successful restaurant open to the public, and fully operational within the secure walls of the prison. It offers meals cooked, prepared and served by prisoners. As such it is unique.
Alberto was the catering manager at High Down for 15 years before he realised his idea of opening a restaurant inside the prison. His reasoning was inspirational and perceptive: he wanted to tackle the problem of re-offending and rehabilitating prisoners back into society. Many of the men who are serving time in High Down come from desperately disadvantaged backgrounds. Once they have served their sentence, and if they remain unemployed, the chances are they will return to the environments that encouraged them to offend in the first place.
‘Some of them have to learn to read and write when they come here,’ Al explains. ‘Many have no family, no house, no qualifications and no hope. If they have no other means of supporting themselves and no-one will give them a job, then the chances are they will be coming back.’
This is where Al realised his restaurant – which he called The Clink - could offer a lifeline. ‘We introduced City and Guilds NVQ training. Now we can train our selected prisoners to become proud, motivated chefs and waiters over periods of between six and eighteen months and, by bringing prospective employers in among our guests, we could arrange for them to have jobs in the catering industry waiting for them when they got out. ‘I took the idea to the prison governor, Peter Dawson. He bought into the vision straight away. Without such an open-minded governor it wouldn’t have happened.’
So The Clink was refurbished from an old laundry and opened in May 2009 as a not-forprofit business, thanks to £330,000 of private money donated by numerous socially-aware charities, businesses and individuals. ‘The taxpayer pays nothing,’ Al emphasises. Poetry written by the prisoners lines the walls, the chairs and tables have all been made by prisoners at Frankland prison in the North East and the impromptu music which livened the lunchtime I was there was sung by an inmate, accompanying himself on guitar.
Not only are the prisoners getting the best training by working in a sought-after restaurant, but Al and his team follow Best Practice in producing and using quality, locally-sourced produce. ‘We have a herb garden and a vegetable garden in the grounds,’ Al explains. ‘Our horticulture students pick and deliver, making the carbon footprint almost non existent. Meats and other produce are sourced locally, too.’
As a guest at The Clink I was invited to choose from the mouth-watering options from the menu, which is changed every week. Having reviewed many of our local restaurants on behalf of Time & Leisure I can say with all honesty that my meal stood favourably with any of them for preparation and presentation. All the more remarkable when you realise that the men who prepare these meals by day are locked up again at night.
The two attentive Maitres D I met were courteous and anxious to know if I was enjoying the meal. ‘Both of them were prisoners here,’ Al explained. ‘Now both are back here working for us.’ Both are working there on merit; both are being paid the going rate for their jobs and both are a credit to Al’s vision and training.
Whilst I was there, songwriter and entertainer Richard Stilgoe was visiting, examining the Clink’s training programme. Stilgoe follows in the inquisitive footsteps of a string of personalities and celebrities: David Miliband; Jeremy Paxman; the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge; prisons minister Crispin Blunt and eminent chefs Mark Hicks (formerly of The Ivy) and Giorgio Locatelli, among them. Visitors to The Clink are not restricted to those invited by Al and his team. Most reasonable-sized parties from established local groups and societies can visit The Clink if they apply beforehand via the website. Security is understandably high and checks have to be made.
At the Time & Leisure Food Awards in 2011 Alberto joined us as our guest to present the Front of House and Specialist Retailer awards. Here he met fellow guest Antonio Carluccio and the two formed a friendship which saw Antonio hosting an exclusive fundraising lunch at The Clink at the end of the year. Two brilliant Italians, without doubt! Al, an Epsom resident, received rightful recognition when The Clink Charity won the Longford Prize, also in December, for its contribution to penal reform and qualities of humanity, courage, persistence and originality. This was the third award the charity won in 2012. Major triumphs indeed as was the MBE Al has received for services to the catering industry. His services to the many prisoners he has given new lives to since he has opened The Clink have to be worth so much more.
