First Dates’ Fred Sirieix opening restaurant in PRISON for new project worlds away from Channel 4 show
FRED Sirieix looks set to open a brand new restaurant in a location that’s a far cry from the high dining worlds he is used to.
The First Dates star will be opening a brand new restaurant in a prison in a shock new career move.
Fred will take over the canteen of HMP Berwyn and update it to become a high-street style restaurant for those locked up inside.
As part of his plan, the criminals behind bars will both cook and serve the food.
With the introduction of the restaurant, Fred hopes to train prisoners on how to cook as part of his charitable organisation, The Right Course.
The Channel 4 star set up the project five years ago in a bid to help prisoners gain professional cooking qualifications and to help develop their skills and provide some motivation for a job role for their eventual release.
Speaking of his new venture, 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.”
The TV personality added of bringing prisons and the hospitality sector together: “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.”
Although he remained optimistic, Fred did admit that it might be a struggle to take over the canteens of all 90 prisons in the UK but confirmed they had secured deals with at least three for now.
Currently, the site at HMP Berwyn is expected to open next month.
The Right Course had previously worked with HMP Wormwood Scrubs to transform their canteen in 2021.