Published Article

HeadlineHome Kitchen: The fine dining restaurant working to end homelessness

Short Headline Combatting homelessness through cuisine

StandfirstThe world’s first fine dining restaurant staffed by homeless people has opened in London’s Primrose Hill.

Home kitchen has opened at 130 Regent’s Park Road. Fighting homelessness with fine dining. It is the first restaurant of its kind, with a mission to scale to other cities with significant homeless communities.

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.

There are currently plans to open two more locations, one in Brighton and San Francisco.

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!

Michael Brown, co-founder of Home Kitchen

The Team

The Restaurant features two-time Michelin Star winner Adam Simmonds as Executive Chef, along with a leadership team made up from the catering, hospitality, advertising, and charity sectors.

 Home Kitchen will be an accelerant out of poverty for our recruits and an incubator of untapped talent for the catering industry.

Adam Simmonds

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. 18 people drawn from this community make up Home Kitchen’s first cohort of staff, with 4 more currently being recruited.

All staff receive full-time contracts, uniforms, travel payments and are paid above the London Living Wage. They also benefit from professional catering training and qualifications covered by Home Kitchen. Including the Beyond Food Foundations City and Guilds Assured Fresh Life qualification. All whilst being supported by a hands on leadership team.

Following a 90-day probationary period at Home Kitchen, staff will progress to Westminster Kingsway College. There, they will complete pro culinary skills certifications alongside their in-work training at the restaurant.

Combatting Homelessness through cuisine

Homelessness is a growing issue in London. Trust for London found that the number of people sleeping rough in London has increased to nearly 12,000 in 2023/24. Despite initiatives, this represents a 19% increase to the total of people seen in 2022/23

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

Offering opportunity, qualifications and support destigmatises labels often attached to the homeless population. Home Kitchen hopes to give them a real chance to progress in both life and their careers.

Visiting Home Kitchen

Executive chef Adam Simmonds has designed both an a la Carte and a six-course tasting menu for launch.

The meal consists of starters such as Beetroot served with fig leaves and wildflowers. The mains include a wide selection of meats, such as lamb belly with white onion and thyme.

Vegetarian options include toasted barley served with fermented celeriac and summer truffle.

Desserts include egg custard tarts paired with rhubarb and nutmeg ice cream, and dark chocolate cake with buckwheat.

Home Kitchen also offers a Sunday lunch menu.

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.