Now award-winning restaurateur Tony Singh is set to face a TV challenge when he battles one of his former protégés on Ready Steady Cook.

Mr Singh, who runs the city's Oloroso and Roti restaurants, will take on celebrity chef James Tanner next month as part of a celebrity edition of the BBC show.

It will be his first appearance on the programme, hosted by Ainsley Harriott, and he joins just a handful of Edinburgh chefs to feature over its 14-year run.

The episode will also be the first time Mr Singh has come face-to-face with the show's resident chef, Mr Tanner, since they worked together in a restaurant in West Sussex more than a decade ago.

Mr Singh said appearing on the show had been a "much bigger challenge" than he had expected.

He said: "I've seen the show many times over the years, and when you see it you think that it's filmed over a few hours and edited down.

"But as I found out, the 20 minutes that the chefs have to cook the food is very strict. What you see on the programme is exactly what we did during the cooking part.

"It's a totally different experience to being in a restaurant kitchen.

"When I'm working it's always busy, but you have all of your ingredients prepared beforehand and ready to cook.

"With this, it was like starting from scratch and very challenging – although it was also a lot of fun."

The episode, which also features celebrity guests – actor Nigel Planer and Red Dwarf star Robert Llewellyn – is part of a week-long "international cuisine" run of Ready Steady Cook.

Mr Singh was chosen to represent Indian cuisine, and the episode sees him making a dish that includes spiced lamb chops and Indian rice pudding.

But until a few weeks before recording he had no idea that he would be cooking against his former kitchen protégé.

He added: "I used to work with James about 14 years ago, when we were both at the Gravtye Manor in West Sussex. He was just a commis chef then, so it was great to see him again.

"I knew that he appeared as one of the regular chefs on the programme, but it was only a few weeks before I went down for filming that I was told that we'd be on the same show.

"We were on different teams though, and I certainly gave him a run for his money when it came to the competition."

In addition to a cook-off between the two teams, the Edinburgh chef also faced a one-on-one challenge against his former co-worker, where they were given ten minutes to prepare a variety of dishes from a "quickie bag" of random ingredients.

Tony Singh's Ready Steady Cook appearance will be broadcast on Wednesday, June 4, on BBC2.

• www.oloroso.co.uk


• www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/readysteadycook_index.shtml