The press release has been embargoed until today, but news of Derren Brown's latest project can now be made public, and hopefully you'll have heard it here first.

The self-styled psychological illusionist Derren Brown (www.derrenbrown.co.uk) has recently moved to London. He explained that the increase in the levels of work meant that it was impractical for him to remain in Bristol. It can now be revealed that his move was heavily connected to his substantial investment in a new Italian restaurant, PizzaESPress.

Working in conjunction with Sbarro (www.sbarro.com) PizzaESPress aims to provide a new dining experience to the lover of Italian cuisine. In addition to all of the standard kitchen training, Brown has also taught the chefs advanced psychological techniques. This means that just by looking at the customers, the chefs will be able to read their non-verbal signals and cook and serve their orders without having to interrupt conversations to jot the order on a notepad.

"We are having a great time working on this project" said Brown last night taking a break from his stage show, "the chefs have really got to grips with my mind control skills and are cooking up some fantastic dishes! The advantage of this system is that there is no need to employ waiting staff, so the cost of the pizza pays for our amazing chefs."

The chefs' contracts forbid them from divulging their techniques, although Brown suggested that his forthcoming TV series would give the casual diner clues as to how they manage to do away with the waiters. When a chef leaves the restaurant Brown performs a memoryWipe(TM), as demonstrated on the London Underground in his previous TV series, to make them forget everything he has taught them.

James Harrison, 26, from Leytonstone was one of the diners invited to the opening night and he described the experience as "totally weird, but so cool". Another member of the party who wished to remain anonymous was open mouthed with surprise when his Napoletana with extra chillies arrived: "he had trouble choosing a chamber between one and six, I never thought he'd get the chillies", she said alluding to Brown's Russian Roulette stunt televised last year.

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