A television presenter, chef and successful restaurateur is getting ready to cook up a storm along with his Italian cooking colleague.

Tony Allan and Giorgio Locatelli appear in the successful BBC TV series Tony and Giorgio, which takes an informal look at the nation's eating habits.

Now the duo are heading down to Brighton and Hove to take part in the Brighton Festival as part of their crusade to put food at the heart of British culture.

Tony, 38, said: "Food is as an integral part of culture, and the Brighton Festival, as anything else. Although British attitudes towards food have changed and are much better than they were ten years ago, there is still work to be done.

"If you take a British person and a French person, one would live to eat while the other eats to live."

Tony, a former chef who started his fish-supplying business after becoming tired of the quality of fish supplied to his kitchens, is one of the country's most influential restaurateurs.

He has founded both the Bank and fish! restaurant chains and has recently teamed up with Italian chef Giorgio for the BBC 2 series.

He said: "I love working with Giorgio so I am looking forward to the demonstration.

"It will be like on TV, England v Italy but it will also be very relaxed and we always have a lot of fun."

He said Brighton had always been one of his first ports of call for good food.

He said: "I used to buy a lot of fish from Brighton when I started my business and I still do.

"It has always been a very vibrant place with a good restaurant culture.

"But what I still can't understand is that there is so much fresh fish around, yet fish and chip shops still mainly stock frozen goods."

He added he still wanted to see the food culture improve.

"I'd particularly like young people to eat better, eating more fish and vegetables and generally being more adventurous.

"I would also like to see more kids eating at home as a family event. Everyone has the right to eat well."

Tony and Giorgio are performing a cookery demonstration as part of a cookery afternoon at the Corn Exchange, Brighton, at 5pm on Sunday.

For tickets, which cost £7, call 01273 709709.