MICHELIN starred chef Russell Brown will be hoping he can handle the heat in the kitchen in a competition on national television.

The man behind Dorchester’s Sienna restaurant will appear on ITV1’s Britain’s Best Dish: The Chefs next Monday.

Russell will be appearing in the first episode of a new series of the show, which features chefs from across the South West hoping to convince judges Jilly Goolden, Ed Baines and John Burton Race that their dish should be chosen as the nation’s best.

A camera crew has already been down to the county town to film for the programme, which saw Russell try to impress with one of his desserts.

He served up his salted toffee tart with crème fraiche sorbet and a cookie crumb and orange reduction.

Russell said: “I had to submit the recipes first and then the team decided which ones they would like me to cook.

“I put my food up for judgement all the time at Sienna, whether it’s for the customers, critics or inspectors.

“The competition however, was a different experience– you can never be sure of people’s personal tastes.”

The creative cook said he enjoyed the experience of cooking in front of the camera crew and also hoped the show would display some of what Dorchester has to offer.

He said: “It was brilliant to bring the cameras to Dorchester and it’s great for the town to be featured in such a high profile programme.

“We also visited our wine merchant Jonathan Charles at the Dorset Wine Company in Poundbury as part of the filming for the first episode.”

The programme is due to go out at 5pm and Russell has been sworn to secrecy about how he fared in the competition.

He said: “I’m not allowed to give the game away– you’ll have to tune in if you want to know the result.”

Russell, who opened his High West Street eatery with wife Elena in 2004, recently celebrated retaining his Michelin star for the third year in a row.

Sienna is the only restaurant in Dorset to have a Michelin star and the only one ever to have retained a star for more than a year.

It is also the smallest restaurant in the Michelin Guide, seating just 16 customers at a time.