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Tuscan dining provided by Volterra prisoners

Giovanna Dunmall | April 2009 issue

It’s Friday night, and I’m on my way to a gourmet dinner at a 16th-century fortress overlooking the hilly, medieval town of Volterra in the Italian region of Tuscany. But this isn’t an average Tuscan dining experience. The fortress is a high-security prison, and the meal is prepared, cooked and served by 30 of its 150 inmates. “My aim is to create working opportunities for the inmates outside, and in return offer real services to the area,” says Maria Grazia Gianpiccolo, the prison’s director. In fact, 25 inmates work outside the prison during the day and come back in the evening; eight of these, Gianpiccolo says, work in restaurants as a result of their experience inside the penitentiary.

To attend a meal, visitors must book weeks in advance, send photocopies of their passports for security checks, and pay $44. All proceeds go to charity. After leaving bags and mobile phones at the door, the 120-odd guests are led to a candlelit courtyard for nibbles and Prosecco. The meal is served in a cavernous deconsecrated chapel done up with tablecloths, handmade table decorations, glasses, plates and… plastic cutlery—one of the concessions made to security.

Gianluca, in prison for murder, used to run a pizzeria-bakery in southern Italy. He works regularly in the prison’s kitchen, and says the tips he gets from the professional chefs brought in are invaluable. “If you know how to work in a kitchen, it is much easier to find a job once you’re out,” he says.

As the six-course meal of local produce provided by a supermarket cooperative unfolds, it feels like we could be anywhere but a prison. To start, we have red prawns garnished with fennel and orange, and a soup made with local zolfini beans and scampi. This is followed by a risotto flavored with saffron, and succulent local salami, turbot and local Chianina beef. For dessert: a chocolate cake served with candied orange and spiced pears. Coffee comes with handmade chocolates and petits fours. The conversation is flowing among inmates, wardens and the public, as is the wine, supplied by a wine-making company only 30 miles away. The atmosphere couldn’t be more convivial.

For this moment in time, before we head back home and the inmates head back to their cells, we’re all just people enjoying a very special evening.

Serving time, and serving dinner

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