Ramsay turns his foul mouth on the Americans while back home his culinary star is waning

Losing flavour: Gordon Ramsay, seen with wife Tana, retained only one of the three awards he has won annually since 2000

The foul-mouthed food expert has sparked a row by breaking his silence on a lawsuit accusing the perfectionist chef of faking scenes in a New York restaurant for the upcoming season of his TV reality show there.

"I would never-ever-ever dream of setting anything up," Ramsay told the American TV industry publication Television Week. "I want to sleep at night. We were issued a writ because, God bless America, if the toilet paper is not thick enough and you come out with a rash on your arse (you'll get sued)."

Forty-year-old Ramsay added: "Trying to say I set up a wobbly chair - this is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, not the most pathetic."

But Ramsay's remarks, which were leaked in advance of publication, have already sparked outrage. One television expert said: "How dare he say such things about the United States when he is delighted to take our dollars."

In his new show, "Kitchen Nightmares," Ramsay visits struggling restaurants and tries to help owners turn around their businesses.

Manhattan restaurant manager Martin Hyde was fired during the filming of a "Nightmares" episode, then filed a £500,000 (US$1 million) lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Ramsay and the show's producers in June.

Hyde accused "Nightmares" of planting spoiled meat, fixing a chair to fall apart and hiring actors to pose as guests lending the appearance of a successful makeover. Earlier this month, a judge tossed the suit into arbitration.

Ramsay said: "The idea of bringing mouldy food in and planting actors is a f**king joke. There's a man who got very scared and very embarrassed about his lack of professionalism. For a man to waste lawyers' time and taxpayers' money to get upset about something you're the cause of..."

The lawsuit said Hyde urged his boss to invite Ramsay's "Nightmares" production to the restaurant, only to be singled out as a scapegoat by producers who needed a camera-ready villain for the show.

"He wasn't the one in charge of the kitchen," said Hyde's lawyer, Carl Person. "The person responsible left the restaurant a week earlier. They're going to make him appear he was the one in charge and he wasn't. They're setting him up."

Meanwhile Ramsay faced trouble back home as his dominance of the London restaurant scene came under threat. For seven years, his eponymous dining room in Chelsea has scooped the top three awards in a poll of thousands of diners for restaurant guide Harden's.

But now Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has lost two of its crowns to rival establishments, although one went to a restaurant within his group run by a former protégé. Experts believe the 40-year-old chef has taken his eye off the ball because he is spending so much time on television and in New York, where he opened a restaurant last year.

The 17th edition of Harden's London Restaurants, is based on the votes of more than 8,000 regular diners. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Royal Hospital Road had won the highest food rating, highest overall rating and top gastronomic experience award every year since 2000.

But this year it has retained only the title of top gastronomic experience. Chez Bruce in Wandsworth won the award for best food. Pétrus in Knightsbridge - part of the Gordon Ramsay Group and run by chef patron Marcus Wareing, who was trained by Ramsay - was given the highest overall rating, based on food, ambience and service.

Peter Harden, co-editor of the guide, said: "For 11 years, Gordon Ramsay has been acknowledged as the best chef in London but we now have to question whether that is still the case.

"Yes, he has still won the top gastronomic experience nomination, but he has been beaten for the first time on food. None of his other restaurants shine and his US opening was received with a massive yawn by New Yorkers.

"His whole reputation is based on the rock-solid performance of Royal Hospital Road which, until now, bestrode London like a colossus. This has always disarmed criticism that he is spreading himself too thin. He could always say his flagship restaurant was head and shoulders above everything else. It is now merely first among equals."