Conviction Kitchen (Australian TV series)

Conviction Kitchen (Australia) is a reality television series based on a Canadian series of the same name. The series follows a group of convicted criminals as they train in either back or front of house restaurant operations.

Conviction Kitchen
Genre	Reality
Starring	Ian Curley (chef) Lisa Parker (manager)
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Elizabeth Egan
Original release
Network	Seven Network
Release	22 February (2011-02-22) – 12 April 2011 (2011-04-12)

The show was produced by the Seven Network and began on 22 February 2011. The series includes the Melbourne-based chef Ian Curley and the restaurant manager Lisa Parker as mentors.^[1]

Curley initially turned down the chance to star in the series as he felt there were already more than enough TV chefs. He later relented as he felt he could relate to the contestants. As a teenager, Curley himself had been convicted of aggravated assault for gang fighting and spent six months in a juvenile detention centre in his native England.^[2][3]

The series saw the ex-inmates complete two weeks of training and six weeks working in a fully operational restaurant, Bistro Three, at the Emporium centre in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.^[2] Some were chosen to work front of house with the others training as kitchen staff. They earned the minimum hourly wage, plus tips.^[4]

At the end of the series, two contestants, Anastasia from the kitchen staff and Silene from the front of house, were chosen to work with Curley at the European. Kristy and Troy also gained further employment from Curley.

Contestants

Name	Age	Time spent in jail	Reason for conviction	Selected	Position
Adrian	27	12 months	break and enter	yes	front of house
Anastasia[5]	19	6 months	theft	yes	kitchen
Anthony	18	18 months probation	break and enter	yes	kitchen
Belinda	35	18 month probation	fraud	yes	front of house
Craig			break and enter	no
David	22	4 months	driving offences	yes	front of house
James				no
Jared	27	5 years	break and enter	yes	kitchen
Josh	25	5 years	burglary	yes	kitchen
Kristy	25	6 months probation	fraud	yes	kitchen
Kylie	34	1 year	dangerous driving	no
Lisa	27	9 months	fraud	yes	front of house
Mirjana	45	8 years	trafficking	yes	front of house
Rebecca				yes
Silene[6]	37	1 year	drug offences	yes	front of house
Takuna			assault	no
Troy[7]	39	8 years		yes	kitchen

See also

• Conviction Kitchen (Canada)