Turn Up the Heat: Gordon Ramsay on Eating Healthy and "Masterchef"

"Raw!" he screams in that Gordon Ramsay sort of way.

It makes the hackles in your back rise and your entire system cringe.

Give this rock star chef a sea scallop that's a little mushy in the middle and he will bring down the wrath of Ramsay.

Then again, Chef Ramsay in person isn't really a bear claw.

He's more like a nice lamb chop.

Ask him to wax on about the best dish (so far) on the new season of his "Masterchef" debuting Monday and he offers a meal that won't make the rest of us pack on the pounds and want to skip bathing suit season.

"The most standout meal I've had cooked early on was amazing," he says of the fare made by his new crop of amateur chefs. "It was a chicken drumstick and chicken leg done with this homemade garam masala.

"It was sort of a Southern Indian spiced coconut chicken dish," he says. "Mind blowing!"

Then he marvels, "This lady who made it on the show is a brain surgeon. She ground her own spice. Can you imagine?

HE'S TENDER AND TOUGH

 "Masterchef" premieres on Monday at 8 p.m. EST on Fox. "I'm really excited. Wow. What a season," says Chef Ramsay. "It's highly creative, incredibly pressurized, and a completely different level of standard from this time a year ago."

Tough on his baby chefs? Please.

"The one thing I expect when they walk into the Masterchef kitchen is determination," he says.

"Determination with a really ballsy attitude, " he adds.

Chef Ramsay also thinks the show fits into these unique economic times.

"What has happened over the last 18 months or two years in terms of disposable income is that we haven't been able to go and eat out in restaurants as often as we would like.

"Everyone is watching pennies," he says.

"We're cooking more at home – maybe three, four or even five times a week," he says. "People are better cooks now. So they come to this show with ambition."

Are these people as good as pro chefs?

"It's quite scary how good the home cooks are becoming," he says. "It's a breath of fresh air that the domestic front can give professional chefs—me included—a boot up the a—."

How driven are these people? "There is one lady in the new competition who had her knives made to fit her hand," he says. "I mean, soccer players get their football boots made to measure. Models get dresses and shoes to measure.

"Now, there are domestic goddesses who get their knives made to fit their hands," he says. "I mean, Jesus, I've never had that before."

A FEW STYLE SECRETS, TOO

Ramsay keeps his trim figure by "just tasting the food. I don't eat huge portions. You can eat everything, if you don't overindulge."

He keeps his own foods simple on a daily basis. "I eat three times a day," he says. "I made some porridge this morning for my kids. I got some prunes, and I sort of stewed these prunes and put them in a blender. Then I blitzed them into a puree and mixed crème fresh in there.

"Matilda my youngest daughter said, 'Dad, you know, you just ruined my porridge.' I said, 'No, I haven't. I've given you some extra protein and vitamins.' She said, 'Yeah, but it looks like diarrhea. You just put diarrhea in my oats.'"

He laughs. "So, we eat a good breakfast at our house. Lunch is a light sandwich and salad. Dinner can be fun," he says.

HEALTHY COOKING TIPS INCLUDING PRUNES

He's also a runner who has completed marathons in England with his wife.

He says that cooking is a great midlifer activity.

"That brain surgeon I mentioned earlier uses cooking as a way to de-stress," he says. "I know thousands of professional chefs who think that cooking is stressful.

"How cool was it for this lady to come on the program, sit there, and say, 'Cooking? Stressful, my a—! You should see what I do for a living."

"Cooking is a way to de-stress," Chef insists. "You don't need glamorous ingredients. "You can make a great dish from a box of anchovies, some dry spaghetti, sun-dried tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and some fresh lemons."

(PS: The olive oil is de-aging for your skin and the lemon will help you lose weight because it cleans the toxins out of your liver.)

Nice, Chef!

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