Gordon Ramsay recalls pining after wife Tana while she was in a relationship with his friend

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has described the moment he met his now wife Tana, revealing that he pined after her while she was initially dating a friend of his.

Ramsay married Tana, a broadcaster and former educator, in 1996, having first met in the early Nineties – when Tana was seeing a friend of Ramsay.

Speaking on the new Netflix documentary Being Gordon Ramsay, the chef recalled: “The first time I met Tana, I was mates with her boyfriend at the time, and they picked me up.

“I was with my girlfriend from Paris to come to our mate’s wedding,” he continued. “And Tana was driving the car, and I was sat in the backseat and I'm looking at my mate thinking, ‘Oh my God, your girlfriend is f***ing gorgeous.’ She looked like a young Julia Roberts and she brought a level of excitement like no other.”

He added: “I'm not too sure if that's what Tana said when she first met me but I get the feeling that she wasn't a big fan.”

Tana, speaking on the documentary, confirmed that Ramsay had “irritated” her initially.

“I didn't like him. I thought he was really arrogant, really full of himself. He used to really irritate me. It took about a month and then we were both single,” she said.

“She knew I didn't have a pot to piss in and so I honestly thought for many months that Tana was out of my league,” Ramsay added.

However, the Kitchen Nightmares star explained that he had “won her over” thanks to his culinary prowess.

“We ended up sort of chatting one night and chatted all night,” Tana recalled. “I guess I must have fancied him.”

“I won her over with food, thank f***,” joked Ramsay.

Elsewhere in the documentary, Ramsay discusses the infamous October 1998 incident in which he ejected food critic AA Gill from one of his restaurants following a bad review.

Gill had described Ramsay as “a failed sportsman who acts like an 11-year-old”, prompting the chef to order him to leave his Chelsea establishment The Gordon Ramsay after he came in to dine with Dame Joan Collins.

The new Netflix documentary explores Ramsay’s private life with Tana and their six children, as well as his attempts to create five new dining concepts inside London’s landmark 22 Bishopsgate.

Being Gordon Ramsay streams on Netflix from 18 February.