Hipster chef provokes backlash after saying Brighton residents are too backward to appreciate his food

‘I want my drink in a glass, not a premium price jam jar,’ say furious locals

Douglas McMaster said Brighton was ‘not the town for such a forward-thinking restaurant’ (holgs/iStock)

An award-winning hipster chef has provoked the fury of people in Brighton, after claiming residents of the city are too stupid to appreciate his food.

Douglas McMaster threatened to move his restaurant “Silo” to London, saying he had been forced to “dumb down” his work to attract local people.

The restaurant promotes itself as being “zero waste” – turning leftover food into compost, and not buying products that come in plastic containers.

However, Mr McMaster believes the concept is not sufficiently appreciated by the people of Brighton.

“I want to serve crazy dishes that are fit for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list,” he told Big Hospitality magazine. “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.”

That triggered an angry backlash from local residents, who told local newspaper The Argus that the chef should look closer to home for reasons why people might be avoiding his restaurant.

Nick Mosley, director of the Brighton Food and Drink Festival, 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.”

Local residents appeared to agree, with many turning on the chef.

“It's not that we didn’t understand the food, we just couldn’t understand the overpricing,” wrote one. “I want my drink in a glass, not a premium price jam jar.”

Another wrote: “Lacks a food culture? That's all you can find in this place is bleedin' restaurants. Sorry if it’s not Shoreditch where they enjoy braised flip-flops with a diesel jus.”

A third added: “What a pretentious sneering hipster - London is welcome to you and you serving your overpriced drinks out of jam jars.”

However, Mr McMaster appears to have had a change of heart, and claimed his comments were taken out of context.

“I have had a lot of people being very aggressive towards me,” he told The Times. “What I was trying to say is I was excited about cooking in London, where I trained.

“It is not fair to dissect every single phrase someone says. I adore Brighton. I love Brighton and all my friends are chefs in Brighton. We are the most ethical restaurant in the world, trying to do the right thing – and for this to happen is cruel, unfair and unjust.”

Speaking to The Argus, he added: “Criticising what I have said is one thing, but criticising Silo is not fair.

“A lot of these people haven’t even been to Silo. They were all slagging off the jam jars but we don’t even have jam jars any more.

“The reason for the jam jars was to keep costs down in the early days and to stop things going to waste.

“The roots of Silo are in Brighton and I hope to be here in 20 years from now.

“I love this town … Brighton is the best place for Silo.”