A fire has ravaged the top floor of one the best-known restaurants in Sussex.

The blaze broke out in a tumble drier above Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack in Little East Street, Brighton, on Friday night.

No one was injured but an apartment and office were gutted.

Restaurant manager Katryna Thomas-Shell, 26, who lives in the flat, was sleeping when the fire started yesterday at 4.50pm.

Her mother Cherita Jones, alias Momma Cherri, who shot to fame when she appeared on Gordon Ramsay's TV show Kitchen Nightmares, said: "It was a small fire which turned into a big fire. It completely gutted our top floor and office. We are devastated."

The restaurant was not damaged but last night it had no electricity.