{"id":2132,"date":"2015-12-09T10:55:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T00:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.moffat.com.au\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2015-12-09T15:03:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T05:03:51","slug":"purpose-in-the-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/cooking\/purpose-in-the-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"Purpose in the preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"[spb_text_block animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ width=”1\/1″ el_position=”first last”]\n

Prison food\u2019 is a phrase often used to describe an unpleasant meal \u2013 one lacking any redeeming feature. Look behind the scenes at Acacia Prison\u2019s kitchen though and you\u2019ll find a greater purpose behind the preparation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Serco opened the all-male, medium security Acacia Prison in 2006. Now, with a recent expansion, the Western Australian facility has the capacity for 1,400 prisoners. This has allowed Serco to expand rehabilitation and reintegration programs, efforts crucial in the reduction of re-offending behaviour.<\/p>\n

One area targeted for these efforts was the prison kitchen. From here prisoners are provided with three meals a day \u2013 a continental breakfast, hot or cold lunch, and hot dinner. The menu rotates every five weeks and meals are pre-approved by an independent dietician to ensure each meets both Australia\u2019s regulatory standards and nutritional requirements.<\/p>\n

Managing such a kitchen may not be seen as the most glamorous job in the world but, for Peter Tischhauser, it\u2019s definitely a rewarding one.<\/p>\n

As Food Service Team Leader Peter is responsible for managing a team of six professional chefs and supervising the production of around 87,000 prison meals each month.<\/p>\n

Currently, Peter employs 70 prisoners in this kitchen \u2013 over half of whom are working towards a Certificate II in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations), or a Certificate III in Hospitality (Commercial Cookery). This training is provided via the Department of Correctional Services, and the West Coast Institute of Training.<\/p>\n

After 13 years working in prisons as well as working for the Australian Culinary Federation, Peter has a considerable level of important industry knowledge to pass on. He speaks highly of the training program and the results it provides in assisting prisoners to successfully reintegrate into the community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Controls on the program are very strict. Prisoners are not, for instance, permitted to sample seafood, or exotic fruits and vegetables due to their \u201cluxury\u201d classification. However, as part of their training, they are permitted to cook a single dish using the ingredients \u2013 which is then served to a staff member or visitor.<\/p>\n

Such control has not dimmed the appeal of the program though, nor prevented prisoners from receiving valuable experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we opened the commercial kitchen, the apprentices have all worked extremely hard,\u201d says Peter. \u201cThey often come an hour and a half early to work and finally have some kind of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our apprentices never felt particularly good at anything \u2013 and this makes them realise they can be good at something. It gives them self-esteem, discipline and a lot of self-pride,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

An indication of this success is the recent expansion of the kitchen facility. The prison has created, in partnership with Moffat, a new commercial-grade kitchen and commercial kitchen equipment<\/a><\/span> featuring the latest technology and equipment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[\/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block title=”IN THE KITCHEN” animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ width=”1\/2″ el_position=”first”]\n

The range of cooking the apprentices need to complete is significant. As well as producing meals for staff and visitors, they also produce food for internal functions, and the visitor\u2019s caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

The line-up of Moffat equipment includes a Convotherm gas 20.10CCET<\/a><\/span>, Convotherm electric 10.10CCET<\/a><\/span>, Waldorf 800 Series oven ranges<\/a><\/span> and commercial deep fryers<\/a><\/span>, as well as other Washtech<\/a>,\u00a0Friginox<\/a><\/span> and Crown<\/a> commercial kitchen equipment<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose Moffat as we want our apprentices to use the same equipment that they will in the outside world. We asked ourselves which equipment would give the students the best possible advantage,\u201d says Food Service Team Leader Peter Tischhauser.<\/p>\n[\/spb_text_block] [spb_image image=”2139″ image_size=”full” frame=”noframe” intro_animation=”none” animation_delay=”200″ fullwidth=”no” lightbox=”yes” link_target=”_self” caption_pos=”hover” width=”1\/2″ el_position=”last”]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[spb_text_block animation=”none” animation_delay=”0″ padding_vertical=”0″ padding_horizontal=”0″ width=”1\/1″ el_position=”first last”] Prison food\u2019 is a phrase often used to describe an unpleasant meal \u2013 one lacking any redeeming feature. Look behind the scenes at Acacia Prison\u2019s kitchen though and you\u2019ll find a greater purpose behind the preparation. Serco opened the all-male, medium security Acacia Prison in 2006. Now, with a recent expansion, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,97,10,44,171],"tags":[194,96,23,77,19,113,88],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-commercial-kitchens","category-cooking","category-wa","category-working-kitchen","tag-commercial-kitchen","tag-commercial-kitchen-equipment","tag-convotherm","tag-friginox","tag-moffat","tag-waldorf","tag-washtech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2157,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/2157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moffat.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}