Such wobbly indentures

There seems to be a slightly fearsome symmetry in the fact that as fewer and fewer people can apparently be bothered to cook, the homeless and jobless are being publicly encouraged to do it.

The TV show Jamie's Kitchen showed us Jamie Oliver's renaissance as a force for good in the setting-up of his Cheeky Chops Charity at the restaurant Fifteen. Last week the media reported widely the opening of Hoxton Apprentice Restaurant, not far from Fifteen in Shoreditch.

The Hoxton Apprentice, backed by the charity Training for Life, is just one of the activities housed in the Government-funded Prospect Centre, Hoxton Square, which aims to provide learning and business development opportunities for the local community. Apprentice is a word with a comfortingly old-fashioned, practically mediaeval, air. It suggests a long period of training for someone attached to a skilled master craftsman.

Currently 12 Londoners, who were all unemployed, some homeless, ranging in age from 21 to 47, have been given a six-week induction course after which they spend four-and-a-half months in the restaurant trying out front and back of house and the bar. They will then go on to "advanced" training in the area where they show most potential. In a year, 48 apprentices will be given this opportunity.

The catering profession is no picnic. There are plenty of drop-outs from catering colleges - those woefully underfunded institutions - and from Jamie Oliver's original Fifteen, only half are still working in the business. It would be unfair to expect too much from a meal at Hoxton Apprentice; better to dwell on the good that might flow from it.

The menu, served all day in the 100-seater restaurant in a Grade II listed building which, suitably enough, was formerly a primary school, has sensibly limited ambition. Some of the dishes are assemblies, all are served in small or large portions. The sort of eclectic approach, nowadays espoused by pub and supermarket alike, which can put Cambodian salad, sausage-and-mash and fresh mushroom ravioli on the same page is celebrated.

Given that there is, apparently, a trained chef for every apprentice, that spring rolls were so clunky, pork ribs left untrimmed of huge amounts of fat, wilted seasonal greens rendered so undercooked as to be almost raw and Thai chicken curry made from unidentifiable meat seemed, if not unforgivable, odd.

Curry-dusted fat chips, which John Prescott was said to like, are big and fat. It is possible to snack on salads, sandwiches and dips. Maybe the apprentices could now be taught to make an omelette. For that you need to crack eggs.