A popular restaurant in Vancouver's West End is putting second chances on the menu for a group of 12 ex-convicts, who will be cooking food and serving meals for the next several weeks.
They're taking part in Conviction Kitchen Season 2, a follow-up to the Toronto-based TV series that documented a dozen ex-convicts trying to get straight in the service industry.
Co-creator Biana Zorich says the project was inspired by her husband, renowned Canadian chef Marc Thuet, and the 20 years he spent battling a severe drug addiction.
"He managed to get clean through a lot of support systems," she said. "Now we want to give something back."
Last month they set up shop at Delilah's (1789 Comox Street), temporarily renamed Delilah's Conviction. Zorich manages the restaurant with Thuet as head chef, but the real stories belong to the staff.
Brent, a reformed drug addict, has been clean for five months. He spends two hours commuting to and from his halfway house each day, and works up to 16-hour shifts in the kitchen hoping to earn a clean slate.
"He's trying to put his life together," Zorich said. "It has to mean a lot to you to get up at 6 o'clock and go home at 12, 12:30 every morning."
Justin works in the front of house. He's lived on his own since the age of 14, Zorich said, and had such a severe drug addiction that he was briefly pronounced dead in 2009 during a heroin overdose.
"He's a wonderful young man, and he realizes that this is his last chance. He knows that if he keeps on doing drugs he's going to die," Zorich said.
None of the ex-convicts are guilty of murder, rape, or child abuse, she added.
According to the couple, 11 of the 12 contestants from Season 1 have achieved a better quality of life: seven remain working at restaurants, three have started families, and a few have taken up construction.
The second season airs this fall, date to be determined.
