Home Kitchen on The One Show on BBC1

Broadcaster, maitre de, and all round Bon Viveur, Fred Sirieix, paid a visit to Home Kitchen Primrose Hill for a Christmas special feature which went to air on December 16th 2024 at 7pm - prime time!

Home Kitchen: The world’s first fine dining restaurant to be staffed by homeless people has launched in London.

All staff benefit from full-time contracts paid at the London Living Wage and pro catering training and qualifications covered by Home Kitchen.

The legendary eatery, Odette’s in Primrose Hill was chosen as the first site for a fine dining concept with a mission to scale to other cities with significant homeless communities.

Home Kitchen features two-time Michelin star winner Adam Simmonds as Executive Chef and a leadership team drawn from the catering and hospitality, advertising, and charity sectors.

London, 18th September - Home Kitchen has now opened its first fine dining social enterprise in Primrose Hill at 130 Regent’s Park Road. After a full refurbishment tastefully designed to convey the restaurant’s social purpose within a quality dining experience, Home Kitchen Primrose Hill opened its doors to its first paying customers on September 11th. The team behind Home Kitchen have taken on a long-term lease (14 years) at the site of the legendary eatery: Odette’s

The not-for-profit enterprise employs those who are designated homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless: people with mixed life experiences including sofa surfing, living in hostels, unstable or temporary accommodation and rough sleeping. 18 people drawn from this community make up Home Kitchen’s first cohort of recruits.

The restaurant will be open weekly from Wednesday to Sunday, offering a dinner service Wednesday to Friday, lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.

Home Kitchen’s mission
Home Kitchen’s social mission will be set within its ambition to provide the finest quality food and customer experience in a relaxed, fun, and informal setting with the high-end standards befitting its Michelin Star Executive Chef, Adam Simmonds.

Not only does Home Kitchen give a marginalised group the chance to reshape their lives, but it also addresses a long-standing issue of rising job vacancies within the hospitality industry, something UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls warned is holding the sector back.


“Home Kitchen will be an accelerant out of poverty and uncertainty for our recruits and an incubator of untapped talent for the catering industry. The restaurant business is an ideal vehicle for our social impact because if you can change perceptions in this world, then you can do it in any other walk of life.”
Michael Brown, one of the co-founders and Chair of Home Kitchen.

“Promising negotiations are underway for a further round of potential backers for a second restaurant in Brighton, home of the second biggest UK homelessness population. And we don’t intend to stop there! The first step into this journey will be proving both the commercial and social impact of our first site, Home Kitchen Primrose Hill.”
Adam Simmonds - Executive Chef - Home Kitchen

Training the recruits
The recruits will benefit from full time contracts at London Living Wage, and two tranches of training to acquire professional qualifications: The Beyond Food Foundation’s City and Guilds Assured Fresh Life qualification, giving staff a strong introduction to working in a restaurant.

After recruits have passed their 90 days probationary period at Home Kitchen, they will go on to Westminster Kingsway College. There, they will complete a pro culinary skills certifications alongside their in-work training under one of the most exciting British chefs.

The first brigade of recruits is 18 strong, and in addition to the Executive Chef, they are supported by a professional Head Chef, General Manager, Assistant General Manager, and a hands-on leadership team with wide experience in the third sector, fine dining, casual dining, marketing, and advertising, catering, hospitality, and events.

Menu
Executive Chef Adam Simmonds has designed both an A la Carte and a six-course tasting menu for launch - blending exquisite flavours to create an unrivalled culinary experience.

Partners of Home Kitchen
Home Kitchen has been working with Beam, Soup Kitchen London, Change Please, Beyond Food Foundation and The Passage to find its first cohort of recruits.

The project is backed by a consortium of partners that are committed to ending homelessness, starting in London. The Big Issue recently became a business partner to Home Kitchen with a significant six figure investment – a move which brings added levels of credibility to Home Kitchen’s mission to end homelessness.

All profits in the enterprise will be reinvested into scaling to other locations in the UK and eventually globally – wherever there is a significant community of homeless people and a homelessness crisis.