TV chef to open new restaurant in Brighton

The TV cook will bring his popular brand of Italian food to the city to expand his growing empire in Britain and on the continent.

Zilli, who opened his first award-winning restaurant in 1988 and has become known to millions of people through his appearances on reality TV, is the latest in a growing band of celebrity chefs turning to Brighton.

He will run an authentic Italian deli-style cafe and restaurant adjoined to the new myhotel in Jubilee Square.

Zilli Cafe will open on March 18 and plans to serve healthy fast food made from fresh ingredients.

Among the classic Italian dishes on offer will be aubergine parmigana, ammatriciana, bolognese and puttanesca.

The 120-seat restaurant, simply entitled Zilli, will open later this summer to coincide with the official launch of myhotel Brighton.

The 80-bedroom boutique hotel will allow guests to tailor their stay when booking, letting them choose from a selection of pillows and even decide what music is playing when they enter their room.

Zilli, who has appeared on Celebrity Fit Club and an X Factor special said: "I think that it is great that myhotels are bringing me back to my roots by the sea, as it's where I grew up in Italy.

"I can't wait to open my new cafe and restaurant and bring my style of Italian food to Brighton."

Zilli, who is an acclaimed food writer and has his own cookery schools in London and Italy, joins other top chefs who have opened up restaurants in Brighton.

Fellow Italian Antonio Carluccio has a restaurant in Jubilee Street and Jamie Oliver will open a pasta restaurant in nearby Black Lion Street called Jamie's Italian in July.

Tony Mernagh, the executive director of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, welcomed the news that another top name had come to the city.

He said: "Just as Brighton and Hove now attracts world class architects like Jim Wilkinson and Frank Gehry to build our homes and offices and world class companies like Disney and Linden Labs to come and work here it doesn't surprise me at all that we are attracting the world class Aldo Zilli to invest in a city that has more places to eat per head of population than anywhere outside London.

"He will not be disappointed by Brighton and Hove and the new myhotel in Jubilee Square makes the perfect location for him."

Councillor Brian Oxley, the leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "This is another arrival that puts Brighton and Hove on the map.

"I think it will be a terrific draw for people and it shows how vibrant the city is and how people want to invest in it.

"Aldo Zilli will be giving us a taster with the cafe and the main course when the restaurant opens later in the year."

Customers at the Zilli Cafe will get to watch homemade pasta and ice cream being produced in a matter of minutes.

It will have capacity for 30 people, offer dishes to take away and be open from 8am to 10pm seven days a week.

An interesting feature of the restaurant will be a Hall of Fame wall which will display photographs of Zilli with his many colourful and varied friends.

The new restaurant will serve modern Italian cuisine made from locally-sourced produce where possible.

Among the many dishes on offer will be Zilli's legendary spaghetti with fresh lobster and cherry tomato sauce, gluten-free linguine with monkfish and squid and roast suckling pig with homemade apple sauce.

The luxurious myhotel Brighton has been described by the chain's founder. Andy Thrasyvoulou. as "Where Freddie Mercury meets the Maharishi".

The last major part of the multi-million pound Jubilee Square development, its rooms will be priced from around £140 a night.

It will have four luxurious suites and a penthouse on the top floor and is myhotel's first new-build outside London.

It has been styled by New York designer Karim Rashid who has laid out the reception area to the principles of feng shui and included lavish details such as covering the ground-floor bar in gold leaf.