A TOP Worcestershire chef is celebrating after bagging top marks for both his restaurants.

Felice Tocchini, famous for his asparagus cake and other culinary creations, owns and runs both Fusion Brasserie and the new Fusion Too bistro, which have been given the highest mark by council health inspectors.

The 45-year-old runs the businesses with his wife Fiorinda, having taken over what was the failed Bird In Hand at Stoulton, near Pershore, in 2006 and turned it into an award-winning restaurant.

The couple have just completed a refurbishment of an old catering unit reopening the premises as Fusion Too on the Blackminster Business Park near Evesham.

Inspectors from Wychavon District Council visited both premises handing out five-star Scores On The Doors food hygiene marks to each. The brasserie maintained its previous five-star rating.

Mr Tocchini, originally from Italy, said keeping his kitchens ship-shape was down to his earliest training.

“I don’t think we’re doing anything extraordinary in keeping the standard we have,” he said. “This is the only way to run a kitchen – it’s the only way I know how to do it.

“In Italy, I trained in Montecatini Terme where we had 12 chefs, each with their own section and the first thing we did each morning was to dismantle the fridge, wash it down, before we did any cooking.” He said being given the top marks meant he now felt “part of the elite of restaurants” within the Wychavon district.

“If you look at the scores, I think there are about 85 five-star district ratings and only about 19 are restaurants. The rest are hotels and nursing homes.”

Fusion Brasserie will again be the only county restaurants at the Taste of Birmingham foodie event at Cannon Hill Park, from Friday, July 16, until Sunday, July 18.