AN ITALIAN restaurant is set to stand out from the crowd with its high-end take on rustic tradition.

Edendum is a new restaurant with a cafe and shop in East Street, Brighton.

It is the creation of husband and wife team Diego Cacciolatti and Lorenza Caneoa who gave up their high-flying jobs with multinational companies to concentrate on the business.

After establishing a company trading high-quality Italian foods three years ago, the couple have now expanded the concept into a cafe-restaurant with a retail space selling exclusive goods from Northwest Italy.

The couple chose Brighton to locate to because of its reputation as a discerning foodie hotspot.

Mr Cacciolatti said: “Brighton is one of the best cities in the UK for food. London is obviously very famous, but in Brighton people really understand quality food. In East Street alone we have Terra a Terre and Indian Summer which are both very good. The quality is extremely high.”

Most of the produce is sourced from Piedmont, and such is their dedication to quality, they rejected 15 mozzarellas before settling on one they felt was the “real type”.

There are no freezers on site, with all ingredients fresh, either regularly delivered from Italy or in the case of bread, pastries and pasta made in the “small factory” downstairs.

Asked how Edendum stands out from the many other Italian restaurants in Brighton and Hove, Mr Cacciolatti said: “We’re doing something really different with regional dishes rather than the usual things like lasagne. There are maybe 200 dishes from each region which gives you an idea of the variety.

"We want to be different in the kind of dishes we do, and we’ve got a veal tartare with dehydrated egg, which is quite unusual for an Italian restaurant.”

Other specialities include gnocco fritto, home-made fried bread dough, served with charcuterie such as coppa.

The food, cooked by chef Giancarlo Ghibaudo, is rooted in family traditions going back generations.

Mr Cacciolatti added: “There are no additives or preservatives, everything is natural.”