and undergoes a series of security checks. He then makes sure all the tools are in place and prepares the kitchen with the rest of his team. At seven the prisoners enter the kitchen and start preparing for the lunch service at 11.45. The food for the tea service is also prepared in the morning and blast chilled for reheating in the afternoon. After lunch service the staff take their own lunch and are back in the kitchen by two where they repeat the procedure for tea service and prep the ingredients for the next day. When the trolleys are back from tea and the washing up is done, he gets to go home, 12 hours after he arrived.
Like any head chef, a lot of what makes his job run smoothly or otherwise is the brigade under him. “As workers, they’re very much the same as outside,” he says. “You get good, bad and indifferent. Some are very good workers; some others can be lazy.”
Prisoners who apply to be part of the kitchen team are first vetted by the security department. After that the kitchen staff speak to the officers on the prisoner’s wing. If they get a bad report from them, again it’s a no go. If the prisoner manages to get through all the checks, they go straight into pot wash where, if they prove themselves, they can apply for other jobs as they become available.
“When they first come into the kitchen some of them can’t open a can of beans,” says Gary but they are put on a station with a more experienced prisoner and, with some input from Gary and his team, they are soon well on their way to becoming competent cooks. By the time they’re ready for the NVQ1, according to Gary, they’re already most of the way there. “They’ve already got the basic knife skills, the hygiene skills, the clean as you go, and the health and safety skills so they tend to pick it up very quickly and achieve an NVQ1 within two to three months.”
“It’s a very privileged job in the kitchen,” he says, “The worst thing we get is people messing about and throwing water around and being childish. We’re very strict on that. Anyone who throws anything at anyone is sacked instantly.”
All of which leads to a single, inevitable question: why does he do it?
Firstly there are the success stories. One of the prisoners that Gary trained three years ago is now a sous chef with a major hotel chain working at a top football stadium. Others, once released, have found jobs with a local brewery, as chefs in various pubs around Manchester.
But, according to Gary, it’s not just the success stories; it’s the buzz of the job itself that keeps him coming back. “You’re doing another job as well as cooking,” he says, “so it keeps you on your toes. It’s the most interesting job I’ve ever had. I absolutely love it. I’ll stay here till the day I retire if they’ll have me.”
So would he recommend it to anyone? ”Yes if they like a challenge and believe that the work they do can help give someone the work ethic and skills needed to get a job in the sector and break the cycle of reoffending,” says Gary.
