The Gordon Strachan of Cookery

Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares was brilliant again. The way he motivates (in stark contrast to the two men at the centre of today's installment, the head chef and proprieter, both of whom needed, in Gordon's words, to grow some balls) made me think of his background in football. The head chef, like the captain, must be constantly talking, guiding younger team-mates on, reassuring them, giving them a good ballocking when necessary (and of course, when not). Yet Gordon Ramsey is surprisingly loveable too; not a bully at all, at times almost tender, and always funny. And the name, the ancestry, the wit... the ginger hair... I've seen it before somewhere...