I made Ramsay weep, says top chef White

Marco Pierre White said his Scottish proteg was not always so tough and cracked when he turned up the heat in the kitchen. He said the daily reprimands he gave to the then young trainee chef have made him into the man he is today.

But he fears that he may have created the "monster" who regularly gives trainees and celebrities a roasting on Ramsay's hit television shows, such as The F Word and Hell's Kitchen.

White, who made his name at Harvey's in London during the 1980s, said Ramsay finally cracked under pressure during his final night in his kitchen.

He added: "He had been a proteg at Harvey's and he was always a hard worker and showed tremendous resilience when it came to my b******ings.

"He never cracked. Or rather he never cracked until the final night at Harvey's. I don't recall what he had done, but I yelled at him and he lost it."

White said the young chef crouched down in the corner and began sobbing. He said: "The next thing I knew he was sobbing in the corner, holding his head in his hands with tears rolling down his cheeks.

"He was saying things like 'I don't care what you do to me. Hit me. I don't care.'"

But White, 44, who gave up cooking after becoming the youngest chef in the world to attain three Michelin stars, said he has turned his back on his creation. He said: "I cut the umbilical cord a few years back. There were a few incidents and I just decided that I didn't want to talk to him anymore, so I stopped returning his calls.

"Perhaps I created the monster who ended up as a TV personality screaming at celebrities on Hell's Kitchen, doing to them what I had done to him."

A spokesman for Ramsay said there was "some truth" in the claim.