First Dates star wants restaurant in every prison

HMP Berwyn is the fifth prison where Fred Sirieix has opened restaurants

The star Maitre d' of the TV show First Dates says he wants to open a restaurant in every UK prison.

Fred Sirieix also wants every prisoner who trains at the restaurant and cafe set up by his charity inside a north Wales prison to have a job when they are released.

The Right Course helps rehabilitate prisoners by enabling them earn qualifications for jobs in the hospitality industry when they come out of prison.

"The goal of sending people to prison is obviously to protect society, but also to rehabilitate people and make sure that they are ready to be released in society and to play their part," Fred said.

The charity The Right Course was set up to help rehabilitate prisoners

Bwyty Cyfle (Restaurant Opportunity) opened at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, in January this year.

Prisoners are trained to cook and serve prison staff fresh dishes made on-site, in a purpose-built, state-of-the-art kitchen.

Caffi Cyfle opened shortly after to teach inmates barista skills.

The restaurant is for prison staff only and is not open to members of the public.

Mr Sirieix said he plans to open more.

"We are opening another five this year, and our goal is to open a restaurant in every prison in the UK, because every prison needs to feed their staff," he told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales.

"And essentially it's a workshop, just like you would do bike repair or brick laying, but you're doing restaurant.

"And we have a huge shortfall in manpower, in hospitality, because, you know, 40 to 50% of the manpower is coming from abroad, and we need to be training and developing our own talent here in the UK, and this is part of that," he added.

HMP Berwyn is the fifth prison where Mr Sirieix has opened restaurants, in partnership with education provider Novus Cambria.

The first opened at HMP Isis in 2017, with Wormwood Scrubs following in 2021 and then two more, at Styal and Lincoln.

At HMP Berwyn, the restaurant is part of a wellbeing hub, which includes a barber’s, classrooms, and health interventions.

Mr Sirieix said: "It's a very well set up restaurant, a great team there, because invariably, the success of the right courses is about the trainers that we have on the ground.

"It's all about the managers running the restaurant and the head chef who's teaching the men."

Mr Sirieix wants the charity to expand into women's prisons in the future too, and he has high ambitions for the inmates who train with the charity.

"We want to be the best in class. We want to be the best at training and developing and creating opportunities for these young men," he said.

"We want every single one of them to have a job. And if they have a job, and they do well, then this going to be the best advertising for the scheme and for more men to join.

"Instead of staying in their cells doing nothing, they go to the restaurant and they learn, and it's about for them to get that sense of satisfaction and knowing that they can to do something incredible with their lives."