A CONTROVERSIAL chef has revealed the reasons why he moved his restaurant to London in a new documentary.

Douglas McMaster, who founded the zero-waste Silo eatery in Brighton, previously angered residents when he said he had to “dumb down” his menu for the city.

But in a new short film, titled “A Failure of the Imagination”, the cook revealed the tough first years of the experimental restaurant after it opened in 2014.

“The only way I could describe the early years of Silo is like moving through thick fog,” he told Brighton film-maker Matt Hopkins.

“No one had done it. It was going to be the hardest thing that I had ever done.

“The reality is that nature never gives the same thing twice.

“Farmers are not the most punctual people.

“We would have services where you were praying the farmer would come any second with those lettuces.”

To avoid creating any waste, Mr McMaster and his team were forced to innovate.

But their efforts were mostly unsuccessful.

“We tried to grow mushrooms from coffee waste. That didn’t work,” he said.

“We made our own soap.

“We even used a coconut to scrub dirty pans.

“That would be the process... failure, failure, failure, failure, sort of success, failure.

“We kept striking brilliant ideas but it would be one in 100.

“There’s only so many knocks you can take before waving the white flag.”

After three years, the restaurant began to see success.

But soon Mr McMaster worried for the restaurant’s future.

Earlier this year, Silo closed and relocated to London.

“Change is slowing down,” he told Mr Hopkins at the time.

“Silo is best when it’s evolving so the way to accelerate change is to start anew.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to leave these four walls but it’s the next step.”

The nine-minute film, released for free by Brighton firm Progress Film, is five years in the making.

Film-maker Mr Hopkins followed the Brighton chef throughout his time at Silo, documenting the restaurant’s rise and fall.

But Mr McMaster also shed light on his childhood.

“At school I just couldn’t do anything, I was useless,” he said.

“I’m dyslexic, I’m dyspraxic, I’m all of the “dys”es.

“Eventually I dropped out and ambled into a local restaurant with nowhere else to turn.”

Progress Film is the city’s largest film studio.

You can watch the film for free at vimeo.com/375646424.