Home Kitchen is a restaurant and social enterprise project in Primrose Hill, London, where homeless people work as staff. It claims to be the first fine dining restaurant in London staffed by homeless people.
The restaurant is founded by Hestia Hospitality - a hospitality group that also backs the likes of Native at Pensons in Herefordshire. Founder and CEO Andrew Fishwick has brought in chef Adam Simmonds as head chef of Home Kitchen, and Simmonds will spearhead the menu as well as the training of the Home Kitchen team. Staff at Home Kitchen will be paid the London Living Wage, receiving a full-time contract as well as a travel card and a professional catering qualification, the idea being that Home Kitchen can become a vehicle to help them out of homelessness.
Simmonds has previously worked in some top quality restaurants. He originally won a Michelin star at Ynyshir, years before it became famous under Gareth Ward, and he won another Michelin star at Danesfield House a few years later.
Via an announcement on Instagram, Fishwick said the following: 'Primrose Hill was chosen as the first site for a dining concept with a mission to scale to other cities with significant homeless communities – in the UK and internationally.
'I’ve had the privilege of working with this group of legends for the past 18 months in building and developing Home Kitchen – the social impact restaurant.'
As well as Hestia Hospitality, Home Kitchen has lots of other partners on board, including Crisis, Only a Pavement Away, Soup Kitchen London, the Beyond Food Foundation and Westminster Kingsway College, among others.