At your service: Pop-up restaurant in Cork Prison gives inmates a lifeline
Former student Miren Rakovac and chef JJ Healy in the kitchen of the pop-up restaurant in Cork Prison.
There is a buzz in the kitchen of Cork Prison, a mixture of excitement, tension and nervous energy.
It is just a few hours before the first course is to be served to 60 guests on the prison’s B circle and in-reach corridor, for the Open Door Restaurant event.
Six inmates are busy prepping for the big evening ahead, which not only places them in the role of serving up food to their jailers but also to people who might offer them the key to the rest of their lives in the shape of a job when they leave the confines of the prison on Rathmore Road on the northside of Cork City.
The Open Door pop-up restaurant is a collaboration between the Irish Prison Service, the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Munster Technological University, and the Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities.
The six inmates who prepared the food have undertaken an eight-week practical culinary skills programme, while serving staff for the pop-up event were from MTU's hospitality management students.
The prison’s assistant governor, Brian McCarthy, said the aim of the initiative was not for dignitaries “but instead to bring employers in to showcase what we can do and what is achievable”.
Chef JJ Healy, who led the programme, said the project was influenced by four such projects in the UK, known as the Clink.
But he said he was also influenced by a similar project in the US when a friend of his told him the head chef in his restaurant trained through the prison system.
He said everyone was entitled to a second chance but “lots of stuff is stacked against them when they go out [of prison]”.
He said the project had resulted in “great success stories”, including one who went on to work with renowned chef Neven Maguire at McNean House in Blacklion, Co Cavan, and another, Miren Rakovac, who is now working in hospitality in Cork City.
Mr Rakovac said while he previously worked as a chef, the Open Door project helped him to reintegrate into society after he left prison after a sentence of two and a half years.
He said a combination of “misluck and misbehaviour” resulted in him ending up in prison.
Among the chefs working on the meal for the event were 36-year-old James and 34-year-old John (not their real names).
James said the project had opened up opportunities for him, although he still has two years of his sentence for drug possession left to serve.
“This is not normally food I would have had with the background I have had over the past few years but it just opens opportunities for you,” he said.
“You don’t necessarily see any opportunities for yourself when you come into an environment like this. You lose confidence and you lose your opportunities when you come to a place like this.”
He said cheffing was something he would like to pursue after prison.
“You don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel when you come to a place like this. I see education as a way forward more than just sitting here and feeling sorry for myself.
He added being in the kitchen was like a time machine to use up the day. “If you don’t have something like that, it would be a very long day in an environment like this. Why not upskill, why not educate yourself? Why not do these things because the other things we were doing clearly weren’t working because we ended up in here in the first place.”
He pointed out life had been going well for him until he was in his early 30s, but then “I lost my way a bit” with drugs.
John left school at the age of 16 and had been working in construction since then. But he said he was now attracted to life as a chef when he leaves the prison in 18 months' time, after not knowing what to expect when he first arrived in prison.
“This shows me that there are other options out there. It is not something I would ever have had interest in before this.”
The aim of the programme is to provide inmates with the training and skills to secure employment following their release from prison.
Prospective employers from the hospitality sector in Munster were among the invited guests for the event.
They included Olwyn Murphy from Hayfield Manor’s human resources department, and Alex Petit, executive head chef with Trigon Hotels in Cork City.
Cork Prison governor Liam Spacey said: “Given the current shortage of workers in the hospitality sector, this unique initiative focuses on identifying and unlocking potential while creating realistic employment opportunities for prisoners post-release.
Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities operations manager Jacob Harmon said: “The practical skills and training delivered through this collaboration emphasises the potential for qualified prisoners to become valuable assets to employers.
"I believe this award-winning initiative has the potential to be replicated in other prisons nationwide and link more of our clients to employers with real, sustainable jobs in the community”.
The Irish Prison Service said past graduates of the programme are now working in hotels and restaurants countrywide, "proving people leaving prison are valued by employers".
Chef JJ Healy said while the Open Door initiative had helped secure some people jobs in the hospitality trade, others benefit in other ways from the project.
“We have other stories of people who have not gone on to cheffing but have done something different in their lives because this has helped them to get some confidence by being told to do something and to try something.”
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