TV CHEF Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wants to make his new Winchester restaurant more sustainable by generating his own electricity.

Plans to make the newly-refurbished restaurant at Abbey Mill more eco-friendly may see the introduction of a hydroelectricity plant in a bid to use the site as was originally intended.

The £1 million project was completed at the start of September following extensive renovation works carried out by Winchester City Council.

Now the River Cottage owner said he’d like to make the best of what the building has to offer.

“There’s one thing we still hope to do and that’s the hydro-electric project,” he said. “But it’s not straightforward. The technology exists and the frame exists – this used to be a working mill – that we can get some-thing up and running that would help us in our sustainability plan.

“It would be a lovely thing to do but we’ve got to bear in mind that people want to come to eat and hear themselves talk and not just a loud whirring. It’s encouraging that we might be able to get it going.”

The sustainable plans also extend to the restaurant’s food, which may see wild trout added to the menu.

Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall added: “If there was a way of putting wild trout on the menu, that would be great, and they are looking into it but we would have to consider how we can back that up.

“It may be a bit of a pipe dream, but if there’s a way we can do it then we will.”