But, in reality, he staged events, falsely claiming meat was spoiled, using a defective chair to imply Dillons’ furniture was shoddy and even hiring actors to pose as customers to make the restaurant look busy at the end of the week, the lawsuit said.

Hyde asked for millions of dollars in damages and a court order to stop the show airing.

James Curich, a Ramsay spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit because he hadn’t yet seen it.

As for allegations about fabrications, Curich said: "It is a reality show and as far as I know it’s not something they do."

Jennifer Sprague, a Fox Broadcasting spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said she couldn’t comment.

Andrew Blackmore, a manager at Dillons, said he’d signed a release stating he couldn’t talk about the show to the media.


Gordon in ’buffalo herding’ crash - June 11 2007
TV chef Gordon Ramsay has crashed a car while trying to herd water buffalo in Scotland.

He got behind the wheel of a rented 4x4 while filming an episode of his Channel 4 show The F Word.

He was visiting farmer Steven Mitchell at his home in Fife to make Scottish buffalo mozzarella.

The pair went out into the field to round up the buffalo in two vehicles - and collided.

"They went charging around in two 4x4s to herd the animals, and there was a point at which they met," a spokeswoman for the star said.

"Luckily Gordon wasn’t hurt and the 4x4 wasn’t too badly damaged," she added.

The embarrassing scene has been left out of tomorrow night’s show.

It is not the first animal-related incident to beset the series.

One of the lambs which Ramsay had been keeping at the home of David and Victoria Beckham was apparently found savaged to death by a mystery beast.

And demonstrators dumped a tonne of horse manure on the pavement outside his restaurant at London hotel Claridge’s after the show carried a feature on eating horse meat.


Ramsay ’goes commando’ in kitchen - June 4 2007
Gordon Ramsay has revealed his big secret - he has cooked while going commando.

The abrasive chef, who is trying to win over New York diners with his new business, said it was common practice in the restaurant world.

He told Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that stripping off his pants was the perfect way to cool down during a hot shift while training with Albert Roux in London eaterie La Gavroche.

The 40-year-old said: "I’ve gone commando, everyone does it. You don’t want to cook in hot, sweaty pants. It’s a chef thing."

Gordon added of his Manhattan venture: "It’s a tough place. They want to discover you, not confirm you. They’re hard to please."

The presenter of The F-Word opened The London after planning his assault on the fiercely competitive US restaurant scene for four years.

But the £5 million restaurant failed to impress the city’s most feared critic, who said The London was "built on familiar French ideas and techniques that have been executed with more flair, more consistency and better judgment in restaurants with less-vaunted pedigrees".

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is being shown tonight at 10.35pm on BBC One.

Gordon takes ’at risk’ fish off menus - May 31 2007
An endangered species of tuna fish is being pulled from Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant menus.