Gordon Ramsay might be famous for biting the heads off of underlings and proteges for the cameras, but in fairness to the man he's rarely - if ever - aimed his blows below the belt, largely saving his anger for the cameras. However, the Scottish chef was recently on the receiving end of an alleged - and bizarre - insult from Jamie Oliver.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Ramsay explained why he was so upset with Oliver's recent behaviour.
"Jamie turned round and said, 'I've got five kids, he's got four kids.' To judge someone else's family on the amount of kids you have, that's... Boys will always fight and butt heads but Tana was mortified. I mean really mortified."
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Tana, Ramsay's wife, lost a baby to miscarriage last year. The 50-year-old, Johnstone-born chef also ruptured an achilles and the couple's daughter suffered from a collapsed lung in what Ramsay understandably described as a 'shit' year.
Oliver had been speaking in response to criticism from Ramsay over his appearance as host of The Nightly Show, when he said: "All my friends and people I work with in TV were very pissed off for me. I was doing TV years before him, so maybe five years ago it would have bothered me and I may have responded.
"But he's got four kids and I've got five kids and I don't want to be slagging off some kids' dad on telly. It's not nice."
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It was unclear whether Oliver's words were a strange way of comparing the two chefs' reproductive skills or simply a case of insensitivity and poor wording. Either way, the situation was highly upsetting for Ramsay's wife - and the chef himself - and the Hell's Kitchen star, who has previously said "a bit of drama is always good for some PR", has said he will not speak to Oliver again until the 42-year-old Essex chef apologises.
Though the two celebrity chefs were good friends in years gone by, their relationship has soured in recent times with a trading of barbs - Ramsay has regularly criticised Oliver's public profile and what he sees as hypocritical stance on healthy eating, as well as the price of his branded Sainsbury's products.
Oliver is yet to respond.
Words: Ronan O'Shea
Topics: Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver