We Talk to Gordon Ramsay · We Talk to Gordon Ramsay TV Plus, published 2000 He's famous as much for his outbursts in the kitchen as his top cuisine - but now Gordon Ramsay wants

We Talk to Gordon Ramsay

TV Plus, published 2000

He's famous as much for his outbursts in the kitchen as his top cuisine - but now Gordon Ramsay wants to set the record straight. The Michelin-starred chef is back on our television screens in November - but this time he reckons it will show his nicer side. TV Plus grills Gordon on what he's up to, and why he is urging cooks to get back to nature…

Top chef Gordon Ramsay reckons we've all forgotten the importance of seasons when it comes to food.

In his new book, A Chef For All Seasons, he extols the virtue of fresh peas in spring and Jersey Royal potatoes for summer. "We shouldn't eat strawberries 12 months a year flown in from abroad," he says.

"We should get excited by the seasonal changes - people have lost that with the influx of convenience foods."

Cooking in his Chelsea restaurant Monday to Friday leaves Gordon with little enthusiasm to cook at home, however.

His wife cooks - Gordon describes it as 'basic' but will not expand further for fear of reprisals.

He no longer gets invited to dinner parties, he claims. "It's a great shame. I'd be mortified to think they're intimidated but I know deep down they are. I'm a simple man with simple tastes," he tells us.

Eating out in restaurants is part of the job for Gordon but not one he relishes.

"They always want us to try new dishes on the menu so by the time we get our starters we're stuffed."

Does he criticise? "No way. I save that for my restaurant. I know how painful it is behind that wall - and it's intimidating enough, let alone if I gave the chef a hard time."

Gordon's last TV series showed it wasn't just the food that got a roasting in

the kitchen - but also his staff.

His new series, he says, will show a balance: "I thought last time it was cleverly edited. It showed people getting told off all day.

"We have our good days and our bad like anyone else, but 80% of my staff are still with me seven years on."

Having chucked a food critic out of his restaurant, Gordon has no time for celebrity reviewers.

"We have a thing in this country with the celebrity reviewers who sit and dictate to the punter - 90% of the article is about their girlfriend and three lines about the food," he says.

"The critics I listen to are my customers as they pay the bills - and one bigger critic - myself."

In 1998, aged 31, he set up his eponymous restaurant in Chelsea. Now, two years on, he has achieved two Michelin stars. His ambition is three. "One is fantastic, two is brilliant but three means you're at the absolute top."

He reckons small, neighbourhood restaurants are more sought after than the trend of mega-eateries seating 300. "Who wants to shout across tables to each other?" he says.

A father of three, Gordon says he'd be appalled if his kids wanted to become chefs. "I don't want them exposed to the flak and hard times I was," says Gordon, who was signed to Glasgow Rangers before he went into his catering career.

"If my son Jack says he wants to spend his holidays whisking souffles, I'll buy him some football boots and they'll stay on until he does better than his old man."