A couple of weeks ago we told you about a brewing battle between “Hell’s Kitchen” star Gordon Ramsay and his former teacher and nemesis, Marco-Pierre White. White was given his own cooking competition reality show on NBC – clearly a knock-off of Ramsay’s show. Well, it looks like viewers only have room for one grouchy British chef in their hearts- and on their TiVOs. White’s show, “Chopping Block,” was canceled after only three episodes. As Chef Ramsay would say, “GET OUT!!”

NBC is pulling cooking competition series “Chopping Block” from primetime after three weeks, sources say.

The network informed affiliates tonight the reality series starring renowned chef Marco Pierre White will be removed from Wednesday’s lineup.

NBC is fortunate to have Jay Leno’s 10 p.m. talk show in the fall considering how many slots are getting cleared out this season. Including “Chopping Block,” six series are not returning — “Knight Rider,” “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Crusoe,” “Lipstick Jungle” and “ER.” A couple midseason reality shows, “Superstars of Dance” and “Momma’s Boys,” are likely gone. Four others are looking pale and shaky — “Friday Night Lights,” “Kath & Kim,” “Life” and “Kings.”

“Block” will be replaced with repeats of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (not to be confused with the upcoming “CI” episodes that first aired on USA Network which will make their broadcast debut starting April 29. Until then, these are repeats of the “CI” episodes that aired on NBC last year — repeats of repeats, in other words).

The cooking competition debuted modestly on March 12, then fell in the ratings with each episode. Sources say NBC plans to run air the remaining episodes at some point. “Block” is survived on Wednesday nights by crime dramas “Life” and “Law & Order.”

[From The Live Feed]

You know your show sucks when NBC thinks old reruns of “Law and Order” will get better ratings. I wonder if Ramsay finally feels vindicated now that he’s more of a commercial success than his old mentor? Supposedly, White once made Ramsay cry when he was a young culinary student. Looks like Ramsay learned everything he knew from White – and then some.

I am a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay’s reality shows, “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” Chef Gordon Ramsay has single-handedly blown apart the image I had of nice, British gentlemen chefs who are so polite and reserved. Ramsay yells, screams, swears and throws things when contestants on his show fail to obey. I’m sure most of it is put on for TV, but I don’t care – I love it when his head looks like it’s about to explode and he just goes off on the idiots and dare to displease him. It’s great TV! But new reports say that the star of NBC’s new show “The Chopping Block,” which is a total ripoff of Ramsay’s show, has some bad blood with Ramsay – and he’s just as hot-headed as his former student, if not worse.

EAT THIS, CHEF! Cursing up a storm, foul-mouthed “Hell’s Kitchen” bully Gordon Ramsay can’t stand the heat now that rival Brit master chef Marco Pierre White-famed in the UK as the guy who once made Ramsay cry – is launching a rival TV cook-in, NBC’s “The Chopping Block.”

Their feud exploded, admits White, when he trained novice chef Ramsay at a famed London eatery years ago.

“I yelled at him…and he lost it! The next thing I knew, Gordon was sobbing in a corner, holding his head in his hands with tears rolling down his cheeks. He was saying things like, ‘I don’t care what you do to me. Hit me. I don’t care.’”

Chef White, whose legendary temper makes Ramsay look like a pussycat, bared his claws to my spy and said, “If Gordon was chocolate, he’d eat himself!”

[From The National Enquirer print version, March 23, 2009]

Here’s an idea for a new reality show – let’s have these two locked in a kitchen for a week and just let them beat the hell out of each other! The winner gets to keep the title of “U.K.’s crankiest chef.” Once they get tired of the fighting, maybe they’d make some amazing dishes. I’d call it “Kitchen Cage Match.”

For what it’s worth, I’ve eaten at Ramsay’s Atlantic City restaurant – it’s fantastic.

Here’s the grouchy crybaby himself, Chef Gordon Ramsay, leaving Nobu in Hollywood. Do you think he went into the kitchen at Nobu and started throwing stuff? Credits: WENN.

Gordon Ramsay, of “Hell’s Kitchen,” and Mario Batali from “The Iron Chef” have had it out for each other for quite a while now, and Batali just gave an interview complaining about Ramsay. His biggest complaint? That Ramsay calls him “Fanta Pants” in public in reference to his penchant for orange shorts. Batali also says that Ramsay calls his restaurants trying to book tables, but that he’s banned him for the foreseeable future:

The beefy “Iron Chef” has prohibited the star of Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” who runs a fancy place at the London NYC Hotel, from entering any of Batali’s dining spots, including the Spotted Pig and Babbo, after Ramsay began calling him “Fanta Pants” to make fun of the orange shorts Batali sometimes wears. The effeminate moniker is a nod to the popular brand of orange soda.

“I’ve banned him from my restaurants,” Batali sniffed to London’s Guardian. “Ramsay’s people call, trying to book tables, and I say no. I won’t have him in there.”

The feud goes back 18 months to when loudmouth Batali labeled rival Ramsay’s culinary fare dull and outdated and said he didn’t get New York. Batali says Ramsay retaliated by making up the nickname, which he sneakily spread behind his back.

“Gordon bugs me . . . Now he goes about town calling me Fanta Pants,” Batali fumed. He notes the ban could be lifted, “If [Gordon] called me himself and said, ‘Let’s sit down for a drink.’ I’m sure it would be fine. We’d be cool. But right now it’s not cool.”

Ramsay’s rep tried to make light of the simmering dispute, telling Page Six the two egomaniacal chefs will “get together someday and have a good laugh about it all.”

[from NY Post]

How does Batali know that it’s Ramsay trying to book tables? The way he says it makes it sound as if it’s happened multiple times. If Ramsay were really trying to sabotage Batali’s business, you’d think he’d find a better way to do so. Or at least have his assistant book it under another name. “Hello, can I have a reservation at eight for a Mr. Fanta Pants?”

You can’t expect much less from these two. The best chefs are known for their personalities, and they’re both television stars, which only adds to the egotism. Though I must admit, “Fanta Pants” is pretty clever. Somehow I doubt that the nicknames Batali calls Ramsay in private are quite so witty.

Picture note by Celebitchy: I found pictures of Batali in different orange clogs, some crocks, dating back to the fall of 2004. Credit: WENN

Sarah Symonds, the “professional mistress” who claims to have had a long standing affair with chef Gordon Ramsay, has broken the cardinal rule of both “professional” and “mistress” by going public with her claims. Symonds was not self-employed, and because she has broken a confidentiality code, she’s been let go as a “spokesperson” for the cheating website she worked for.

Sarah Symonds was sacked from her job working for an infidelity website, it has been alleged.

Symonds, who claimed she had a seven-year affair with TV chef Gordon Ramsay was an infidelity spokesperson for the Ashley Madison Agency.

The dating website specialises in hooking married people up behind their partner’s backs.

But entertainment website TMZ has reported today that the 38-year-old was recently fired, allegedly because she was not discreet enough.

For now Symonds has returned to her family home in Newport, Gwent, to escape the furore over her kiss and tell allegations.

[From Daily Mail]

How do you tell your mom and dad you have to come back home because you lost your screwing-married-men-for-money job? And how do you put that on your resume? Customer service? I know Symonds is counting on cashing in on the notoriety, but not many mistresses stay in the limelight long term. Even Heidi Fleiss can only stay in the news with drugs and questionable choices in men. I hope Symonds is saving her money, jobs are hard enough to come by in the UK without your last job being adultery assistant.

In a kind of valiant attempt to milk the celebrity for all she can, in a way only one who is used to selling themselves could, Sarah is now claiming that she has had jobs with other “high profile” men, including, she says, another well-known chef. Jamie Oliver’s wife is probably asking questions right now.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has gotten a lot of bad press in the last few weeks over a reported affair he had with “professional mistress” Sarah Symonds. Fox News’ Pop Tarts has evidence that Symonds’ claims were all just an attempt to increase hits on the website AshleyMadison.com, for which she was a spokesperson. The website is for people who want to have extramarital affairs. Symonds was employed because she wrote an instructional book on how to be a mistress. Classy. The president and CEO of AshleyMadison claims Symonds had reason to fake an affair, and a high profile chef was suggested during website meetings.

It has been quite a rough week for top British chef Gordon Ramsay after author Sarah Symonds went public with claims she has been having a ten-year affair with the married “Hell’s Kitchen” star. Ramsay however came forth on Thursday and dismissed the allegations as “a load of BS” while appearing on the BBC’s “Good Food Show.” But Miss Symonds was employed in February this year to be the U.K spokesperson for the controversial internet dating service AshleyMadison.com which caters to those looking to have a secret extramarital affair.

“Symonds was the face of the company in the U.K and we wanted to generate some buzz and one of the ideas we threw around was if she was too have a high-profile affair,” Noel Biderman, President & CEO of AshleyMadison.com tells Tarts. “At the time she specifically asked if an affair with a top British chef would accomplish what we needed to do.”

So could it all be a PR stunt or did Symonds really have something to hide? The relationship between the spokeswoman and the company fizzed out after just a few months as Symonds reportedly wanted to head to Hollywood and pursue her lifelong ambitions while the company needed someone who would stay in the U.K.

“There were no ill feelings when she left,” Biderman says, adding that he has since reached out to Symonds in the wake of the Ramsay infidelity claims but has not had a response.

[From Pop Tarts]

The main problem with this angle is that Symonds isn’t working for AshleyMadison anymore, so why would she come forward about the affair now? While the president’s quote is pretty damning, it’s important to note that Pop Tarts has a big conflict of interest here – which they don’t disclose. It’s part of Fox News’ website, and Ramsay’s reality show “Hell’s Kitchen” is a Fox show. It would make sense that they want to keep their talent looking good. The article could still very well be true, and Noel Biderman said what he said. But it’s important to take the whole thing with a grain of salt since Fox didn’t disclose the conflict of interest.

No matter what, Sarah Symonds sounds like a real loser. She’s become famous for her affairs, and apparently that’s the only thing she’s good at. The woman actually wrote a book that’s essentially about how to screw another woman over. She doesn’t sound like an ethical person, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if this whole debacle was just a way for her to become more famous.

Here’s Sarah Symonds’ instructional cheating book. Header of Gordon Ramsay leaving his London home this morning. Image thanks to Fame.

Earlier this week we told you how the British tabloid News of the World broke a story about internationally famous TV chef Gordon Ramsay’s alleged 7-year-affair with Sarah Symonds, a so-called professional mistress. Ramsay threatened to sue the publication for libel and has put on a unified front with his wife of 12 years since then. But no lawsuit has been filed. Now, new reports are surfacing that Ramsay admitted to his wife that he does know Symonds but has only met her on four occasions.

Gordon Ramsay has made a grovelling apology to wife Tana Ramsay, after admitting to meeting ‘mistress’ Sarah Symonds four times, it was alleged today.

The television chef was forced to admit to his wife that he does know Symonds, who insists she has been his mistress for seven years.

But he told his wife – who appears to be prepared to stand by him – that they have only met on four occasions.

The couple appeared near their Wandsworth hand-in-hand, in a show of marital solidarity despite the possibility that further lurid revelations will emerge later this week.

Gordon, 42, and Tana, 33, are said to have pledged to save their twelve year marriage, with the normally hard television chef offering his wife a grovelling apology in the light of the devastating claims.

While the chef refused to apologise directly for any affair, a source told The Daily Mirror Ramsay said: ‘I’m so sorry I’ve put Tana through this.

‘I’ve apologised to her and I feel absolutely dreadful. She really doesn’t deserve all this grief.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This story just gets more and more interesting. I’m reminded of other famous cheating husbands who were all indignant and denied all allegations at first, then admitted to “knowing” the other woman, and finally to a lot more. The most recent example is John Edwards. What I’m wondering about are the “lurid revelations” that will possibly be revealed this week. By whom? And how lurid?

Gordon Ramsay is shown on 11/24/08. Credit: Fame

Gordon Ramsay, notorious F-bomb dropping British chef, was cleared by UK communications industry watchdog, Ofcom, of breaking broadcasting rules after eating puffins on his UK TV cooking show, The F Word.

In an episode filmed in Iceland, Ramsay was shown “sky fishing”, which is a fancy word for catching the low flying birds with a big net, and then having his guest break the necks of four puffins then skin them.  Ramsay then removed the fresh heart to eat as a raw, Icelandic traditional delicacy.  Later, the barbequed puffins were served with a cucumber salad.

The puffin Ramsay caught was shown biting the chef on the face as it was struggling to get free.  When the host asked his puffin-hunting guest why they couldn’t just shoot the puffins, the answer was “This is more of a sport.”  Well, at least the puffin got a shot in before the bout was over.

Ofcom recieved complaints on the show from viewers and many animal rights groups expressed outrage at the hunting of an endangered species.  The puffin is protected in the UK, but Iceland issues permits to control populations. 

One viewer wrote on the F Word forum: “I caught the last few minutes where to my horror Gordon Ramsay took part in catching and killing puffins. And then he made silly remarks when the terrified bird he caught defended itself and bit him.

“These birds are declining in the UK and to show their killing in another country where it is allowed is irresponsible.

“A very bad move on Gordon’s part to be seen to condone practices in another country that would definitely not be tolerated here.”

Another said: “I was appalled last night watching this rude, arrogant prat amuse himself by catching puffins in an oversized butterfly net.

“Are there no depths he won’t sink to in his quest for the latest gastronomic fad? I don’t care if islanders have eaten them in the past, or if they are considered a delicacy… these birds are adorable, and surely an endangered species?

“To add the final gruesome touch we saw his mentor kill the bird and snap its wings out of joint, ready to pluck. I’m no softie but I felt physically sick to my stomach. I’m delighted Ramsay was bitten, serves the swine right.”

[From Telegraph.co.uk]

The F Word has often featured segments on slaughtering or hunting animals for cooking, and generally, people with weak stomachs aren’t regular viewers.  It’s known as a down to basics and the raw side of culinary type show, as is it’s host.  For that reason, Ofcom has made it’s decision that Gordon Ramsay didn’t break any broadcast rules.

Ofcom said viewers who watched The F Word were used to items featuring the rearing, hunting and killing of animals for food.

The watchdog said the sequence occurred in Iceland, where the puffin is not a protected species and a popular part of the national diet.

The birds were caught and killed in what appeared to be a fast and humane way with minimal suffering, it said.

It did not “consider that this item went beyond the general expectations of the audience for this post-watershed food and cookery programme”.

[From UK MSN]

Post-watershed time in the UK, after 9pm, isn’t always a light-hearted or inoffensive viewing time, but there’s something about the hunting of puffins that wouldn’t be viewable at any time.  It was obviously shocking, and likely puposefully so.

Gordon Ramsay is synonymous with food and over-the-top bitchiness. Best known for Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, the potty mouthed chef is also an outdoorsman. While filming his show The F Word, which can be seen on England’s channel 4 or the BBC for those lucky cable owners, he fell down a 28 foot cliff. After surviving the fall he then landed in a creek and started to drown.

I thought I was a goner. They say cats have nine lives. I’ve had 12 already and I don’t know how many more I’ll have. I remember thinking, ‘Oh f***’. My boots and my waterproofs were dragging me down. I’m an extremely good swimmer, but I couldn’t get to the surface. I was panicking and my lungs were filling with water. When I got to the top after getting my boots off I was dazed and my head was totally numb.

[From The Sun]

Luckily his tv crew witnessed the fall and acted quickly. They threw Ramsay a rope and pulled him out. He suffered a large cut on his leg which was then treated at his hotel. After a stop at Cromwell Hospital in London for a brief examination he was back on his feet.

His wife was more upset over the incident the Gordon was. After he failed to come clean about the accident, Mrs. Ramsay found out and confronted him about what happened:

I chickened out but she knew something was up. She was upset and extremely p****d off. When I was underwater all I could think of was Tana and my kids. It wasn’t until I was on the plane home I realized what a close call I’d had.

[From The Sun]

Gordon nearly drowns and almost doesn’t tell his wife while Ryan Seacrest is bitching to everyone that will listen about a baby shark nibbling his toe. Where the hell is Jaws when you need him?

Gordon Ramsay is shown on 4/1/08 outside Claridges in London. Credit: WENN