Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the last couple of decades, Gordon Ramsay needs no introduction. Famous for his gourmet cooking, excessive use of profanities, Michelin-starred restaurants, best-selling cookbooks, and popular TV progammes, the ubiquitous chef takes a different approach and makes things easy in this cookbook. Allegedly.

The book is accompanied by a DVD of Gordon in his own kitchen making a selection of recipes from the book.

There are lots of good photos in the book but, in my opinion, too many of his family. Sure, the guy is keen to promote his family-man image, but quite frankly I’d rather see more photos of food rather than Ramsay’s kids.

Instead of having a proper contents page, the contents of the book are squashed down and hard to spot on an early page in the book. I keep forgetting they’re there, and flicking through wondering where the heck the contents are. But they are there, if you know where to find them.

After Gordon’s introduction in which he gushes about food, family and loved ones, we get into the substance of the book, which contains the following chapters:

• Breakfast and brunch
• Great fast food
• Family and friends
• Summer barbies
• Just for kids
• Bellinis and blinis
• Posh

There are plenty of inspiring ideas and pictures to drool over. I’ve made several of his recipes but even though I’m a reasonably experienced cook, I didn’t find some of them particularly easy. I didn’t mind that as I enjoy a challenge and learning new things.

I liked this book well enough, and use it often enough, for it to merit sixth place on my top ten cookbooks of 2008. But, unlike Ainsley Harriott’s Gourmet Express, I don't really think Gordon Ramsay does make it easy in this book. With the huge emphasis on promoting his idyllic image as a family man, Gordon Ramsay makes it smarmy might have been a more apt title.

Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy

Gordon Ramsay
Hardback, 256 pages
2005, Quadrille
ISBN 1-84400-116-4
RRP: £19.99

The more Royalist-inclined among you will already know that the Prince of Wales turns 60 tomorrow. The BBC News website has a picture gallery to mark the occasion.

So what relevance does that have to Not Delia? Well, Picture 9 in the series shows two pictures of Prince Charles in a food or agricultural environment, accompanied with a caption referring to his organic food range launched in 1992 with produce from farms on his Duchy of Cornwall estate, Duchy Originals.

So far, so humdrum. But what really grabbed our attention was the caption, which included this gem:

But it is not without critics – chef Gordon Ramsay berated its salt and sugar levels

If you’ve ever seen the DVD that accompanies Ramsay’s book Gordon Ramsay Makes It Simple (and that title is a bit of a misnomer itself – it’s an excellent book, but most of the recipes in it aren’t really for the novice cook) you’ll already be falling about laughing. If not, get hold of a copy if you can. There’s prodigious quantities of salt flying around everywhere!

What makes it even funnier for Not Delia and me is that a couple of years back, we saw a skit on the ITV comedy show Monkey Trousers in which John Thomson parodied a TV chef on a morning programme. All was running smoothly at first. But then things started going off the rails when he gave his recipe for pancakes, which consisted of flour, water, butter, eggs – and a pinch of f***in’ salt…

Are you passionate enough about food to want to work with Gordon Ramsay? If you’ve got what it takes, you’ll never be short of work again.

They are always looking for those enthusiastic and experienced people who are striving to build their career in the fine dining restaurant industry. Gordon Ramsay is one of today’s undisputed culinary masters and you too could have the opportunity to work alongside him and his team of distinguished chefs and management in some of the world’s finest restaurants.

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants provide each driven individual the opportunity to work in a high-class atmosphere where each day will enhance your skills and knowledge of the Michelin-starred experience.

Click the link below for a list of current vacancies. But don’t worry if what you’re looking for isn’t there. According to their website, they “are always delighted to receive any applications for entry level positions in the kitchen or front of house”.

Current vacancies at Gordon Ramsay's restaurants