OUR interest in food has grown to new heights in the 21st century.

Food programmes have dominated our TV screens, both on terrestrial and cable channels.

Celebrity chefs and celebrities trying to be cooks have become a TV producer’s dream as they seek to put millions of bums on sofas across the UK.

And the appetite for food programmes has made supertars out of cooks from ‘Naked Chef’ Jamie Oliver and new host of the TV quiz Family Fortunes Gino D’Acampo to ‘Domestic Goddess’ Nigella Lawson and ex-Great British Bake Off queen Mary Berry.

But when it comes to who the most successful UK TV chef is, despite the competition, there is only one winner – fiery Scot Gordon Ramsay, the ex-Rangers trialist who went on to become a multiple Michelin star winner and host of string of TV shows.

Glasgow Times: Ramsay famously had a trial with Glasgow giants Rangers Ramsay famously had a trial with Glasgow giants Rangers

The 54-year-old superchef’s standing was confirmed in a new analysis of the UK’s best known chefs based on their net worth, cookbook sales, the number of restaurants, social media influence, Google search volume, TV appearances and on-screen career length.

The personal finance experts money.co.uk created a scoring system and did the number crunching to rank the performance of the UK’s foremost culinary experts.

Mr Ramsay scored 98.5 out of 120 with the analysts stating that despite his fearsome reputation “few can argue against the relentless work ethic he applies to his culinary pursuits and business dealings.

And it has not stopped during the coronavirus crisis.

The Johnstone-born star of a string of reality shows such as Kitchen Nighmares, Hell’s Kitchen, The F Word and Hotel Hell has been planning to launch a new restaurant chain – with 200 spots around the world in the next five years.

The father-of-five who unveiled plans in recent financial reports saying: “GRNA (Gordon Ramsay North America) has exclusive rights to develop Gordon Ramsay branded restaurants in North America, Canada and the Caribbean where it has plans to open up to 200 restaurants.”

While his restaurants company made pre-tax profits of £15.1m, there were also plans to for 50 new sites in the UK creating around 2000 jobs.

While much of his property portfolio in the UK is concentrated in London – including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, the three Michelin-starred fine-dining flagship in Chelsea - he is expected to look for more regional openings as part of an expansion. 

The analysis stated: “To date, Ramsay’s restaurants have been awarded an extraordinary 16 Michelin Stars in total (7 of which have been retained). In addition to his incredible success in the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay has captured TV audiences across the world, thanks to appearing in 32 TV shows and featuring in around 640 episodes. 

“With his fiery personality and exceptional skills in the kitchen, it’s no surprise that the chef is estimated to be worth over £171m.”

The second ‘most successful’ on the list was Jamie Oliver, who scored 93 out of 120, despite having earings of over £233m –  above that of Mr Ramsay.

Glasgow Times: Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver

With a career spanning over 21 years the 45-year-old chef has made his fortune from a series of successful cookbooks and TV shows but hit a downturn in 2019 when his UK restaurant business collapsed with the loss of 1000 jobs.

In third place was Gino D’Acampo, the Naples-born celebrity chef who rose to fame as a regular chef on the ITV show This Morning and has since presented cookery programmes including Let’s Do Lunch, There’s No Taste Like Home and Gino’s Italian Escape. With 12 cookbooks, 37 restaurants, an 18-year TV career, and a £7.8m fortune, he scored 66 out 120.