The f Word: Series 1

Can you stand the heat?

Sharp-tongued, culinary maestro Chef Gordon Ramsay brings his brand of nightmarish coaching to young - and sometimes brash - amateur chefs all competing for a job in his kitchen. In this new series, Ramsay shows his protégés the hard reality of working in a kitchen by taking over a restaurant and inviting 60 specially-selected diners who will use their wallets to vote for which chef will win - and if they don't like the food, they don't pay!
Not confined to the kitchen, Ramsay also travels all over the world in pursuit of the freshest straight-out-of-the-sea or off-the-pasture ingredients and demonstrates how you can prepare the most authentic gourmet dishes in the world... right on your own stove.
Always energetic and quick to denounce bad food and incompetence, Chef Gordon Ramsay whips up portions of discipline that will give you a pretty good idea of why they call this show "The F Word".
Episode highlights include celebrity guest diners Joan Collins, Jonathan Ross, Richard Wilson, Sharon Osbourne and many more...

Episode 1 - In tonight's first show the first lady of British comedy, Dawn French, joins Gordon for dinner at his new restaurant. Dawn spills the beans on husband Lenny Henry, grabs a snog from Gordon and helps him launch Find Me A Fanny, his search for a new female television cook. Natasha Kaplinsky is the series' first recipe challenger, pitting her culinary savoir faire against Gordon in the F-Word kitchen.

Dawn is one of fifty diners who will be sampling the food cooked by this week's brigade: The Eton Boys. When they're not hanging out in Bouji's with Prince Harry, they're passionate amateur chefs. Gordon doubts they've ever done a day's work in their lives, but tonight they're responsible for preparing crab spring rolls with chilli dipping sauce, loin of venison with sweet and sour peppers, and profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce.

In a new departure, the best-performing brigade of the series will return at the end of the run to cook at Gordon's restaurant at Claridges, so the stakes have never been higher.

Episode 2 - Among the fifty diners are Girls Aloud, who reveal what they really think of their pop rivals, and comedy legend Ronnie Corbett, who takes on Gordon in the recipe challenge. On the menu - Pan-roasted foie gras with rhubarb, butter-roasted rib eye of beef, and summer berry soup with floating islands. As ever if the diners don't like the food, they don't have to pay.

Tonight four feisty amateur cooks from the Kent Fire Brigade join Gordon in the kitchen - will they be able to cope with the heat of Ramsay's kitchen?

Gordon's baby lambs are about to arrive but in a shocking development the Ramsay family have some painful lessons to learn when there's trouble during the birth. Plus, Janet Street Porter tempts punters at Cheltenham's Gold Cup to take a gamble on a new super-food - horsemeat.

Episode 3 - Top Gear's James May takes Gordon on in the recipe challenge, and in the restaurant Gordon confronts him with a culinary test of his manliness. Denise Van Outen joins the restaurant diners to enjoy a delicious starter of duck egg with tapenade and anchovy fingers, a spicy main course of tandoori spiced halibut with cucumber raita, and a heavenly dessert of scotch pancakes with caramelized bananas.

Tonight's brigade of passionate amateur cooks are four feisty country girls from Lancashire, and they're willing to do whatever's necessary to produce food the 50 diners will be willing to pay for.

Back in Gordon's garden Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall warns him that the lambs will soon run out of grass, so Gordon has to hit the phone to call in favors from celebrity friends to see if they'll lend out their gardens for his flock.

Episode 4 - Among the paying guests at the restaurant is David Gest who proves to be Gordon's worst nightmare - a diva in the dining room - and Blur bassist-turned-cheese farmer, Alex James, takes Gordon on in the recipe challenge and tries to convince him of the benefits of breast milk (and gets him to sample it).

On the menu are seared tuna nicoise salad with soft-boiled egg, roast chicken breast with a morel sauce and grilled asparagus, and spiced roast apples and pears with madeleines and vanilla ice cream. Tonight's amateur cooks are a foodie family from East London, three outspoken sisters and their brother-in-law who all believe that blood is thicker than water; will they be as close after a night in Ramsay's kitchen?

Plus, Janet Street Porter investigates the making of foie gras and challenges Gordon to remove it from his restaurant menus. Gordon turns deer-stalker as he embarks on a wild deer shoot - but things don't exactly go as planned.

Episode 5 - Gordon turns the tables on ‘The Saviour of Radio One', Chris Moyles, challenging the culinary imbecile and junk food addict to cook a curry-in-a-hurry in a race against a delivery from his local curry takeaway.

Gordon's lambs (named after Charlotte Church & Gavin Henson) have eaten their way through Sarah Beeny's back garden and are on the move to posher pastures at Beckingham Palace. No sooner are the flock munching on Victoria & David's grass, than Gordon decides to give them a stylish haircut to fit in.

This week's amateur cooks are four North London Estate Agents who cook a three-course meal of sauteed black pudding, sage and onion rosti with soft boiled eggs, breadcrumb veal escalope with caponata and a classic tiramisu for the diners. The recipes are so simple everyone can cook them at home, but will the Estate Agents' attitude stand in the way of them producing quality food and winning the chance to return as finalists in the series?

Episode 6 - Gordon travels to Scotland to herd wild buffalo and create the first-ever Scottish Buffalo Mozzarella. In the restaurant he puts Ian ‘Beefy' Botham's taste buds to the test in the wine-tasting all celebrity wine-makers fear: The Cliff Richard Celebrity Wine Challenge; plus the food snob with the big gob, Janet Street Porter, challenges Gordon to take nose-to-tail eating one step further as she persuades him to sample a new superfood - blood; and we get the latest news from Beckingham Palace where Gordon's lambs Charlotte and Gavin have been staying as guests of Posh and Becks.

This week's brigade of amateur cooks are four Desperate Housewives from Nottingham who cook a mouth-watering three-course meal of broad bean risotto with scallops and pork chops served with apple and raddichio, courgette tempura, and a delicious dessert of cherry samosas.

The recipes are so simple everyone can cook them at home, but how will the brigade manage cooking fifty portions in the restaurant? Will they do better than last week's team of Estate Agents who proved to be the worst kitchen brigade by far?

Episode 7 - Jonathan Ross comes for dinner but soon finds himself under interrogation in the kitchen; Gordon tries to bring Britain's most unpopular food back from the brink of extinction by turning teenagers on to tripe; Gordon teaches a busy mom with four young kids how to cook great fast food for the family; and Sara Cox takes Gordon on in the recipe challenge with her special recipe for chilli con carne. And, after the tragic death of his young lamb Charlotte, Gordon's lamb Gavin gets a warm welcome back to the Ramsay family home and some new friends to play with.

The amateur cooks are a team of tough female police officers from Lancaster, who will be cooking a delicious meal of roast pigeon with wild mushroom and asparagus salad, roast skate with beetroot and pain perdu with caramelized peaches.

Will this brigade be good enough to win the chance to return to cook in the season finale or will they be found guilty of crimes against food?

Episode 8 - It's war in the dining room as 50 women fight to be the next great TV chef! The kitchen is also a battleground as this week's brigade of amateurs, four ex-Army Captains, take on a pea, asparagus, pancetta and goat cheese frittata followed by honey roast duck with green beans and a hazelnut vinaigrette, and finally a classic baked Alaska for dessert.

These men served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but can they handle the heat of Ramsay's Kitchen and sell enough plates to return to cook next week at Gordon's Mayfair restaurant, Claridge's?

Episode 9 - The finale takes place at Gordon's restaurant at Claridge's in London's West End where the most successful amateur brigade of the series will be cooking the lambs Gordon and his family have been rearing in their back garden. For the winning brigade it's the ultimate culinary challenge.

Award-winning comedian Ricky Gervais comes for dinner and gets the surprise of his life when he tastes some of the world's strangest foods. Plus Gordon heads north to revive a British delicacy and one of his childhood favourites: tripe.

On the menu tonight is King crab tortellini, followed by rolled leg of lamb and individual shepherd's pies. Dessert is a delicious hot chocolate soufflé preprared by the winner of Gordon's search for a new female home cook.

"England's most famous chef" - The New York Times

"Ramsay is one of the world's greatest chefs" - Chicago Sun-Times

"Really good... definitely a 10." - Joan Collins