Celebs face Ramsay in reality cookery show
Abi Titmuss and Edwina Currie are among the celebrities taking part in new Gordon Ramsay reality show Hell’s Kitchen.
They will be joined by Eighties pop stars Matt Goss and Belinda Carlisle, TV crimebuster Roger Cook, former Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison, Coronation Street and Bad Girls star Amanda Barrie, Gimme Gimme Gimme’s James Dreyfus and “Pub Landlord” Al Murray.
Ramsay will have just one week to train up the 10 celebrities to become chefs in his London restaurant.
Viewers will see their tears and his tantrums as he whips them into shape.
The restaurant will then open for business serving 75 diners every day – a mix of celebrities, food critics and the general public.
Contestants whose cooking doesn’t come up to scratch will be voted off until one remains to be crowned Britain’s ultimate celebrity chef.
The live two-week show will be screened in the summer.
“It’s a great celebrity line-up but I’m more concerned about their cooking ability – or lack of it,” Ramsay said.
“I won’t be looking at them as celebrities – from day one of training they are cooks and we’re in it together.
“We’ve only got a week to prepare and it’s a huge task. But it’s an exciting challenge at the same time and I hope we can pull it off.”
“Sleazy Senorita” Rebecca Loos applied to be on the show but was turned down.
Instead viewers will get the likes of Currie, the former Tory health minister whose previous dealings with food have been disastrous.
Her remark that most of Britain’s egg production was infected with salmonella caused huge controversy, while Northerners were up in arms when she suggested they were unhealthy because they ate too many crisps.
A spokeswoman for the show said it would provide two weeks of “high drama”.
Michelin-starred Ramsay is known for his volcanic temper and expletive-laden rants – last week viewers of Channel 4 show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares saw him dump a bowl of egg whites on a hapless chef’s head.
“They are in for the shock of their lives. As any chef knows, those kitchens serving the best restaurants are among some of the most stressful working environments on earth,” the spokeswoman said.
Hell’s Kitchen will be hosted by Angus Deayton in his first major TV job since he was sacked from Have I Got News For You over newspaper reports of his cocaine-fuelled sex romps.
