Gordon Ramsay is as famous for his temper as for his fabulous culinary creations. Kate Whiting caught up with TV's top chef at his restaurant in London.
Factfile
Name: Gordon Ramsay
Age: 41
Significant other: Wife Tana, an author of cookbooks in her own right. They have four young children, Megan, twins Jack and Holly, and Matilda.
Career high: Becoming the first Scot to win three Michelin stars in 2001. He remains one of only three chefs in the UK to have three prestigious stars.
Career low: As a teenager, he suffered a knee injury that put a stop to his professional football career.
Famous for: His food and his fiery temper.
Words of wisdom: "I didn't get a grounding from my mum and dad. I lived at 18 different addresses and went to 18 schools. I can't do that to my kids. It's not about me now, it's about them. Having a foundation is critical."
We're sitting in his self-named restaurant at Claridges in London surrounded by pastries and pots of coffee and I suddenly feel quite nauseous. Maybe it's the thought of the sea urchin lurking somewhere in the egg next to the smoked salmon and muffin or maybe it's just Gordon's overbearing personality first thing in the morning.
One minute he's talking seriously about the plight of veal calves and the next he's jumping up and showing us his nipples, to prove how he avoided chafing on the London marathon. It's all a bit much for breakfast.
The irrepressible chef is back on Channel 4 for another series of his hit magazine show The F Word.
And the sea urchins will feature in a new slot called Teach Gordon Ramsay A Lesson, where he travels the world in search of new flavours and daring culinary adventures. In fact they nearly got him into trouble.
He says: "I was diving for sea urchins off the west coast of Ireland. It was just amazing because it was a drift dive where the two currents, incoming and outgoing, meet. You're in a boat travelling at 12 knots and all of a sudden you're dropped off into the water," he gushes.
"You're just pushed along on the surge. Unfortunately, I got lost but I came back up quickly before a helicopter came," he adds, glibly.
Then there's making an F Word beer in his garage ("It's like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in there now with all these siphons and barrels, but the smell is amazing") and his next ambition, "noodling" for giant catfish in the Mississippi.
"You dive and the catfish get attracted to your flesh. They start sucking on your elbow and you grab them by the gills and pull them out of the hole.
"I like that level of discovery really. Very few chefs put themselves in that situation of jeopardy," he says.
Since the series first launched in 2005, 41-year-old Gordon has repeatedly shown how fearless he is both in the kitchen and out, with tasks including rearing animals throughout the run and then taking them to the slaughter. This year, his equally acid-tongued sidekick Janet Street Porter has the task of rearing veal calves on her farm in Yorkshire - but Gordon says he won't be there to see them die.
"It's quite an emotional bond and having them in my back garden was a little bit too close for comfort. It was pretty horrific last year with the lambs," he explains.
"The garden's not big enough for the veal, they need ten times the space. So Janet's got the horn, for the first time in 17 years..." he quips.
Last year, animal protesters dumped a tonne of horse manure outside one of Gordon's restaurants in protest over an F Word stunt which saw Janet eating horse meat. The fiery chef admits it was "awkward", but insists he's not worried about a backlash over the veal.
"Veal is something we're squeamish of in this country, because we're all attached to it emotionally. But it's delicious and it's incredibly healthy," he says, his enthusiasm almost contagious.
"It's definitely possible to rear 'nicely' and we highlighted that with the pigs and the lambs. There are unethical ways of rearing veal. But we don't do that in this country; it's proper veal.
"I don't want to do it for any form of controversy, to upset anyone, but just to show that the right way of doing it is the only way."
This year, the F Word will run for 12 weeks over summer with the usual format of Gordon and his brigade cooking for a restaurant.
But this time all his chefs will be celebrities, who will have to create a three-course meal for 50 diners each week.
"Half of them haven't done a full day's work anyway, so it will be nice to see them sweat and get them out of their comfort zone," he says laughing.
Geri Halliwell will swap her tight skirt for an apron as she takes on Gordon in the cooking challenge, while Ricky Hatton will trade in his boxing gloves for oven gloves as Gordon teaches him how to eat more healthily.
Gordon adds: "That's been the big message this year, trying to get the nation to understand that healthy food doesn't have to be boring food.
You can eat really well, without feeling you've got to put weight on at the same time.
"Ricky gets a lot of flak because outside of training he puts up to three stone on and it's doing him damage, yet as an athlete he needs to put that weight on to become that determined to lose and become fit at the same time.
"We changed his eating habits around and helped him control that without going too excessive with the weight out of the ring."
Once he'd sorted Ricky's diet out, being Gordon, he couldn't resist stepping in the ring.
"We sparred a bit and I said, 'Right. Let rip!' And I stood there in absolute utter shock. The power through this bag was extraordinary - I got pushed on the ropes, I got winded, lost my breath and fell flat on my face!"
Gordon's Healthy Appetite campaign will include helping a mum in Darlington cater for her eight children - and he's also keen to take a pop at fellow chef Delia Smith's latest cook book and TV show How To Cheat At Cooking.
"I'm embarrassed from a chef's point of view. Embarrassed and somewhat deeply saddened because I think as a nation it was one step forward and 25 back. We can be better than that!" he spits. So why does the father-of-four think the UK is so unhealthy?
"It's easy to answer that one. I am a parent. It's discipline and it's laziness, you give in to children for peace of mind really," he says.
"We haven't got that innate understanding of how important it is to eat well from an early age.
"You think of this strict regime we have in terms of advice on smoking and drinking and drugs and we should be just as assertive with our conditioning of children.
Parents should be up for ransom if diets spiral out of control."
Our time with Gordon is running out. He's got more world conquering to do.
He's off to Tokyo and then there's the opening of his latest restaurants in Paris and LA - with one in Australia planned for next year. "When things are going too well, it's too easy, I need to dig it around and turn it upside down and get back at the coal face."
And with that, the charming chef leaves us to digest our eggs.
Factfile
Name: Gordon Ramsay
Age: 41
Significant other: Wife Tana, an author of cookbooks in her own right. They have four young children, Megan, twins Jack and Holly, and Matilda.
Career high: Becoming the first Scot to win three Michelin stars in 2001. He remains one of only three chefs in the UK to have three prestigious stars.
Career low: As a teenager, he suffered a knee injury that put a stop to his professional football career.
Famous for: His food and his fiery temper.
Words of wisdom: "I didn't get a grounding from my mum and dad. I lived at 18 different addresses and went to 18 schools. I can't do that to my kids. It's not about me now, it's about them. Having a foundation is critical."
We're sitting in his self-named restaurant at Claridges in London surrounded by pastries and pots of coffee and I suddenly feel quite nauseous. Maybe it's the thought of the sea urchin lurking somewhere in the egg next to the smoked salmon and muffin or maybe it's just Gordon's overbearing personality first thing in the morning.
One minute he's talking seriously about the plight of veal calves and the next he's jumping up and showing us his nipples, to prove how he avoided chafing on the London marathon. It's all a bit much for breakfast.
The irrepressible chef is back on Channel 4 for another series of his hit magazine show The F Word.
And the sea urchins will feature in a new slot called Teach Gordon Ramsay A Lesson, where he travels the world in search of new flavours and daring culinary adventures. In fact they nearly got him into trouble.
He says: "I was diving for sea urchins off the west coast of Ireland. It was just amazing because it was a drift dive where the two currents, incoming and outgoing, meet. You're in a boat travelling at 12 knots and all of a sudden you're dropped off into the water," he gushes.
"You're just pushed along on the surge. Unfortunately, I got lost but I came back up quickly before a helicopter came," he adds, glibly.
Then there's making an F Word beer in his garage ("It's like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in there now with all these siphons and barrels, but the smell is amazing") and his next ambition, "noodling" for giant catfish in the Mississippi.
"You dive and the catfish get attracted to your flesh. They start sucking on your elbow and you grab them by the gills and pull them out of the hole.
"I like that level of discovery really. Very few chefs put themselves in that situation of jeopardy," he says.
Since the series first launched in 2005, 41-year-old Gordon has repeatedly shown how fearless he is both in the kitchen and out, with tasks including rearing animals throughout the run and then taking them to the slaughter. This year, his equally acid-tongued sidekick Janet Street Porter has the task of rearing veal calves on her farm in Yorkshire - but Gordon says he won't be there to see them die.
"It's quite an emotional bond and having them in my back garden was a little bit too close for comfort. It was pretty horrific last year with the lambs," he explains.
"The garden's not big enough for the veal, they need ten times the space. So Janet's got the horn, for the first time in 17 years..." he quips.
Last year, animal protesters dumped a tonne of horse manure outside one of Gordon's restaurants in protest over an F Word stunt which saw Janet eating horse meat. The fiery chef admits it was "awkward", but insists he's not worried about a backlash over the veal.
"Veal is something we're squeamish of in this country, because we're all attached to it emotionally. But it's delicious and it's incredibly healthy," he says, his enthusiasm almost contagious.
"It's definitely possible to rear 'nicely' and we highlighted that with the pigs and the lambs. There are unethical ways of rearing veal. But we don't do that in this country; it's proper veal.
"I don't want to do it for any form of controversy, to upset anyone, but just to show that the right way of doing it is the only way."
This year, the F Word will run for 12 weeks over summer with the usual format of Gordon and his brigade cooking for a restaurant.
But this time all his chefs will be celebrities, who will have to create a three-course meal for 50 diners each week.
"Half of them haven't done a full day's work anyway, so it will be nice to see them sweat and get them out of their comfort zone," he says laughing.
Geri Halliwell will swap her tight skirt for an apron as she takes on Gordon in the cooking challenge, while Ricky Hatton will trade in his boxing gloves for oven gloves as Gordon teaches him how to eat more healthily.
Gordon adds: "That's been the big message this year, trying to get the nation to understand that healthy food doesn't have to be boring food.
You can eat really well, without feeling you've got to put weight on at the same time.
"Ricky gets a lot of flak because outside of training he puts up to three stone on and it's doing him damage, yet as an athlete he needs to put that weight on to become that determined to lose and become fit at the same time.
"We changed his eating habits around and helped him control that without going too excessive with the weight out of the ring."
Once he'd sorted Ricky's diet out, being Gordon, he couldn't resist stepping in the ring.
"We sparred a bit and I said, 'Right. Let rip!' And I stood there in absolute utter shock. The power through this bag was extraordinary - I got pushed on the ropes, I got winded, lost my breath and fell flat on my face!"
Gordon's Healthy Appetite campaign will include helping a mum in Darlington cater for her eight children - and he's also keen to take a pop at fellow chef Delia Smith's latest cook book and TV show How To Cheat At Cooking.
"I'm embarrassed from a chef's point of view. Embarrassed and somewhat deeply saddened because I think as a nation it was one step forward and 25 back. We can be better than that!" he spits. So why does the father-of-four think the UK is so unhealthy?
"It's easy to answer that one. I am a parent. It's discipline and it's laziness, you give in to children for peace of mind really," he says.
"We haven't got that innate understanding of how important it is to eat well from an early age.
"You think of this strict regime we have in terms of advice on smoking and drinking and drugs and we should be just as assertive with our conditioning of children.
Parents should be up for ransom if diets spiral out of control."
Our time with Gordon is running out. He's got more world conquering to do.
He's off to Tokyo and then there's the opening of his latest restaurants in Paris and LA - with one in Australia planned for next year. "When things are going too well, it's too easy, I need to dig it around and turn it upside down and get back at the coal face."
And with that, the charming chef leaves us to digest our eggs.