Vegetables are being chopped, chicken is being dipped in breadcrumbs and salad is being prepared - all very ordinary cooking tasks. But today is no ordinary day and this is no ordinary kitchen.
I'm in the kitchen at HMP Swansea - and the people preparing the dishes are not ordinary chefs, they're inmates. The category B prison, located in Oystermouth Road, welcomed a handful of professional chefs from Wagamama restaurants on Thursday to teach a group of prisoners how to cook three of the restaurant's iconic dishes.
I was invited along to see the special “cooking masterclass” in action and got a useful insight into how HMP Swansea operates. Just to get to the kitchen, I first had to go through three locked and monitored doors and airport-style security and ID checks, then I walked across a monitored courtyard and past further locked doors and barriers, up in a lift and then through a giant metal-barred door. I was escorted by prison wardens and staff and at no point could I even go through two doors in one-go: the door behind you always had to be closed before you could open the door in front.
