A former New York restaurant manager can't take Gordon Ramsay's heat and wants out of his Kitchen Nightmares.
Martin Hyde, the ex-general manager of Indian-American eatery Dillon's, sued the celebrity chef on Tuesday, accusing him of faking scenes for an upcoming Fox reality series in which he takes over failing restaurants for a week in a bid to reverse their fortunes.
In his court documents, Hyde alleged that Ramsay lied about finding spoiled meat, used a defective chair as a prop to suggest that Dillon's furniture was of poor quality and hired actors to act as customers so it would appear that the restaurant was busy at the end of the week.
Hyde also claimed that the chef, known for his foul-mouthed rants, verbally abused him to the point where he quit his job.
He is seeking a court order to prevent the show from airing and millions of dollars in damages.
Ramsay's spokesman said he had not yet seen the suit and could not comment. Fox also declined to comment on the situation.
Muhammad Islam, the owner of Dillon's, had no comment on the lawsuit, but said conditions at his restaurant had improved since Ramsay's visit.
It's not the first time Ramsay has been accused of faking it for the cameras.
Last year, he successfully sued London's Evening Standard for libel over a report that alleged he had manipulated scenes for the British version of Kitchen Nightmares. He walked away with $150,000, plus court costs.
"I won't let people write anything they want to about me," the hot-tempered chef said at the time. "We have never done anything in a cynical fake way."
Overall, it hasn't been the best month for Ramsay, seeing as the winner of his other reality show, Hell's Kitchen, may have been leaked before the current season even began.
Gambling site bodog.com suspended bets on the show before the third season premiere on June 4 after receiving a disproportionately high number of wagers on one contestant.