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An Italian chef has landed himself in hot water -- after telling TV viewers how to prepare a cat and cook it in a stew.

Beppe Bigazzi - who appears on the Italian equivalent of Ready, Steady, Cook - said on air that he finds cat meat a "delicacy" and that it's "tastier than other animals."

He then went on to detail how a cat could be soaked for three days to tenderise it, before being cooked in a stew - much to the apparent horror of the female host of La Prova Del Cuoco (The Cooks' Challenge).

"I've eaten it myself and it's a lot better than many other animals. Better than chicken, rabbit or pigeon," he said.

Understandably his feline recipe had animal rights campaigners reaching for their phones (rather than their saucepans) and within minutes the TV station had been besieged with complaints.

The 77-year-old has now been suspended from the afternoon show on RAI TV but stands by his recipe which he says is a famous dish in his home region of Valdarno, Tuscany and was very popular in the 1930s and 1940s.

Under a 1991 law killing and cooking cats in Italy is illegal and punishable by up to 18 months in jail.