Ramsay roasts 'rock star' chefs

net1

Gordon Ramsay has condemned TV cooks who he claims think they're rock stars.

The Michelin star-winning restaurateur said Ainsley Harriott was a comedian, not a chef, and Antony Worrall Thompson had more chips on his shoulder than McDonald's does in its freezer.

He said: "Ready Steady T*** (the BBC's culinary gameshow Ready Steady Cook) pays a £500 appearance fee. I don't need to go on television or down to the jungle with a thong on my arse to fill a dining room."

Interviewed in the Radio Times, he said: "Some chefs think they're rock stars, but don't forget we cook for a living, sweat our balls off in a hot environment, and there's nothing glamorous about that."

Ramsay launched an attack on Worrall Thompson, who has recently returned from his stint in the Australian jungle for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here.

He said: "He slags off every talented young chef. His biggest hang-up is he hasn't won a Michelin star. He had kinder words for Harriott, who he said was a gem whose ambition was to present Stars In Their Eyes.

But he reserved his highest praise for Nigella Lawson, of whom he said: "Every chef in the country would love her in the kitchen, but we'd never get any work done. She's sex on legs."

Of restaurateur Terence Conran, he said he would rather gatecrash his four-year-old daughter Megan's pre-school and eat her milk and biscuits than have his food. "He's a designer, not a chef. Kiss my cookie is what I say to him," he said.

Talking about the reaction to his antics in the kitchen after the infamous 1999 documentary Ramsay's Boiling Point was screened, he said: "Other chefs jumped on the bandwagon, hypocritical b******s.

"Raymond Blanc went, 'Oh la la, We don't need this violence in the kitchen.' Bulls***. When he flips his lid, he's like a rottweiler. A sweet guy, though."