I don't really watch the cooking shows much, or for that much TV (in fact, I don't even own a tv), but my understanding of Ramsey was that he was a notoriously foul-mouthed temperamental, brash jack*ss. However, I've recently come to think that might just be a persona he uses to help promote the show - every show needs an antagonist to p*ss everyone off.
The reason I'm thinking it might just be a persona, is that the other week a non-native English speaking coworker was asking me about some English words on a Youtube video about cranberry relish. The chef was British, so she was having a little trouble making out the accent on some less common culinary vocabulary.
To my surprise, it was a very cordial Ramsey doing series of holiday cooking lessons with younger children. He was very soft spoken and jovial, even when the kids (being kids) didn't pay attention to instructions very well. It was like a completely different person from his adult shows.
I suppose he might just have been toning it down since he was working with kids, but then I remember seeing one episode of some other show of his where he apparently goes around helping struggling restaurant owners. He was direct about his critique, but it wasn't confrontational or abusive, even when the owner/chef refused to take his advice and told Ramsey he was wrong. He simply said "I'm sorry, then I can't help you. Goodbye". He turned around and left without so much as another word. In the post interview, he merely lamented that he was disappointed because this was the first time he'd be unable to help a client, but nary a disparaging word towards the owner, who was admittedly a bit of an *ss herself.
So, I'm kind of starting to think that the foul-mouthed abusive thing may just be an act to stir the pot. (Ha! see what I did there?!)