A RESTAURATEUR who made his name in Brighton has condemned the city as not sophisticated enough for top-end eateries.

Douglas McMaster launched Silo in Upper Gardner Street, Brighton, in 2014 following a crowdfunding campaign asking local people to support his zero-waste restaurant with their cash.

But now as he prepares to move to London the chef said he had to “dumb down” his menu and said Brighton lacked food culture and was not forward thinking.

He told trade magazine Big Hospitality: “I want to serve crazy dishes that are fit for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Brighton is not the town for such a forward-thinking restaurant.

“Brighton is not the right place for Silo. Brighton has been a beautiful three years of getting it wrong then getting it right and we’re doing well but I’ve had to dumb down what I do. Brighton does not have the contemporary food culture that’s needed for Silo. “ The young chef’s outspoken comments have been condemned as “absurd” and “sour grapes”.

Brighton Food and Drink Festival director Nick Mosley said: “This is patently absurd. For a city of our size, we have one of the most diverse and creative food scenes in the UK.

“Blaming the city and its consumers for the shortcomings of his concept restaurant strikes me as somewhat arrogant and disrespectful of what the city and its chefs and restaurateurs have achieved over the past decade or so.

“Nowadays I think people of all backgrounds are increasingly interested and considerate of the politics around food – areas such as food waste and food miles – but it’s a rare consumer who wants to pay to sit in a restaurant, drink out of a jam jar and be moralised to about their food choices.

“I don’t think Silo are doing themselves any favours in propagating this hyperbolic nonsense about Brighton’s food scene.”

Brighton and Hove City Council cabinet member for culture Alan Robins said: “Your immediate reaction to this is to get angry.

“But thinking about it sensibly we have more restaurants per head of population than anywhere outside London.

“You can eat somewhere different every day of the year and there is a vast variety of cuisine and we have a lot of world class places.”