Home Kitchen is Now Open

After a truly epic fundraising and development journey Home Kitchen – the fine-dining restaurant that aims to end homelessness – is now open.

London, 18^th 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 11^th. The team behind Home Kitchen, which includes Asociat founder Michael Brown 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 is open weekly from Wednesday to Sunday, offering a dinner service Wednesday to Friday, lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.

“Home Kitchen will be an accelerant out of poverty 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.”
Adam Simmonds

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.

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. The recruits will benefit from full time contracts at London Living Wage, and two tranches of training to acquire professional qualifications.

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. Asociat has had a fundamental role in securing these partnerships.

“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.”
Michael Brown (Chair, Home Kitchen and founder of Asociat)

New recruits on day one at Home Kitchen

The First Team!

Tantalising dishes from Home Kitchen's opening night