Ramsay's US courtroom nightmare

With £67m already banked, Gordon Ramsay could be forgiven for leaving his Kitchen Nightmares in the past. The reality TV show, in which he attempts to turn around ailing restaurants, has already plunged him into a legal battle over an episode in which he was seen retching after being fed rancid scallops and caused some anxious hours when a chef keeled over with an apparent heart attack under the impact of his trademark abuse.

The US version of the programme will not be shown until the autumn, but the fallout is already proving just as severe, judging by the reaction of one restaurant manager who found himself under fire.

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Martin R Hyde, general manager of the Dillons Indian-American restaurant in midtown Manhattan, has filed a lawsuit in New York, accusing Ramsay of faking scenes for the camera. He has demanded damages for the humiliation he says he experienced and is seeking a court order to stop the show from airing.

Mr Hyde's lawsuit, filed in the US District Court, claims Ramsay staged events - falsely claiming meat was spoilt, using a defective chair to imply that 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 suit also carries Mr Hyde's claim that Ramsay humiliated him so much that he was forced to quit to avoid further abuse.

The accusations contribute to what has been a rocky start to Ramsay's US career. His New York restaurant, on West 54th Street, has been losing a reported £10,000 a week, in part due to diners failing to honour reservations after critics including The New York Times' revered Frank Bruni complained of its "leathery lobster" and "cruise ship catering".

"It's a rocky start. Let's not beat about the bush, it's been tough. But it's gearing me up perfectly for France," Ramsay said recently, a reference to his plans for a Paris restaurant, due to open on 1 February, next year.

But Ramsay's TV appearances have been more of a hit. The US incarnation of Hell's Kitchen was last summer's second-highest-rated show on the Fox network and has just returned for a third series, delivering Ramsay celebrity status in the US.

In preparation for Kitchen Nightmares he recently explained to journalists: "I'm not trying to make excuses for my management skills. I have a very assertive way. It's wake up, move your ass, or piss off home."

Andrew Blackmore, a manager at Dillons, would not elaborate on the lawsuit yesterday, insisting he had signed a legal form stating that he could not discuss the show. Jennifer Sprague, a Fox Broadcasting spokeswoman in Los Angeles, would not comment either, but Ramsay's position was made clear by his spokesman, James Curich. Asked about the suggestion that scenes had been fabricated, he said: "It is a reality show and as far as I know it's not something they do."

Mr Hyde may be aware that Ramsay is as uncompromising in court as he is in the kitchen. A year ago, he won a libel action against the London Evening Standard after it accused him of faking scenes on the ill-fated "scallops" show, in which he was working to turn around a struggling bistro in Silsden, West Yorkshire. After Associated Newspapers had printed an apology and £70,000 in damages to Ramsay and the makers of his programme, he declared: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me."