Red Team:

Abbey Clancy, Adele Silva, Anneka Rice, Kelly LeBrock, Rosie Boycott

Blue Team:

Barry Mcguigan, Brian Dowling, Jim Davidson , Lee Ryan, Paul Young

Saturday morning at 9am. Ten unsuspecting celebrities arrived, one by one, at Hell’s Kitchen. Meeting for the very first time they formed a line and waited in nervous anticipation to meet their new boss and mentor for the next two weeks – original rock star chef, Marco Pierre White.

They were about to learn – in a unique twist – that for the duration of the competition, women would be pitted against men to see who are the better chefs.

But they were also about to discover that learning to cook would not be the first skill to master– learning how to act and behave in the presence of their new, formidable leader, would be a task in itself.

Marco’s kitchen etiquette was first on the menu – and the celebrities would need to learn fast – speak when spoken to, don’t ask questions, never interrupt and leave any hint of sensitivity or ego at the door or it would soon be stamped out of you … as they quickly saw…

MEETING ‘THE GREAT WHITE’: MARCO’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

As the celebrities nervously waited, Marco – known as the Great White by his friends – appeared from the back of the kitchen and walked up to the pass.

After a steely gaze lasting some five minutes, he invited the ten unnerved celebrities into the kitchen.

“Girls to my left, boys to my right.” Marco said calmly but sternly. The celebrities nervously shifted around.

Marco then delivered his inaugural address:

“Tomorrow night we need to feed 74 people. For me that is a big challenge as I haven’t been in the kitchen for seven and half years… I have nailed my colours to the mast… I expect all of you to do the same.

“My reputation is on the line and so are yours. I will decide very quickly why you are here. Whether you are here for the right or the wrong reason and those that are here for the wrong reason I will deal with you personally. I will expose them like they have never been exposed before. Because I take this very seriously.

“The reason I have separated you is to simplify things and to satisfy my own curiosity – who cooks the best, boys or girls – everyone thinks boys – right or wrong?

Former newspaper editor and women’s rights campaigner, Rosie Boycott, is first to speak up in Marco’s presence.

“Women cook and boys are chefs – they are meant to be more creative and we are meant to be the ones that feed the kids.”

Marco is not impressed:

“There are a lot of kids in this country that are not fed properly let’s not forget that before you make your foolish statements.”

Introductions were then swift with Abbey and Brian receiving the brunt of Marco’s dismissive and blunt side.

After welcoming Jim Davidson to Hell’s Kitchen Brian, the next in line, went on to introduce himself to Marco – to be cut short.

“I didn’t ask you anything. You are quick out of the box – who are you? Marco demands.

Brian explained and Marco swiftly moved on. Lee was told to take his hat off – “Show me some respect – see me as the judge,” Marco told him.

The women got abrupt treatment too with Abbey being given the shortest time out of them all – her name was asked and then Marco moved on with little more than a nod.

AN EGG – ASPERATING START !

After the celebrities had introduced themselves to Marco he set them their first food based challenge – to prepare him a meal using eggs in just 10 minutes.

“The first thing I want you to do is something very simple. Before I can position you I need to know what you’re up to, so I want you all to cook me an egg dish. Your choice; omelette, scrambled, poached fried. You’ve got 10 minutes,” declared Marco.

“By the way you cook an egg I’ll know who you are and what you are, trust me. “

The celebrities were allowed to use as many eggs as they chose and immediately set off to work to try and impress the boss. Lee Ryan was the first to try and pose a question and was shot down straight away by the fiery chef:

“You’re not here to ask questions you’re here to say yes chef.”

As time ticked away the celebrities became more panicked as Marco marched around them all.

“It’s extraordinary that you’re all getting panicked about an egg,” he laughed.

As he inspected the boys’ progress, Marco was pleased to see Barry rushing about the kitchen.

“I like to see a spring in your step Barry,” he said.

Self-confessed terrible cook Brian felt the heat most as Marco stood watching him prepare his omelette.

“I’m attempting an omelette,” he said to Marco, but Marco missed his finest moment when Brian tossed the omelette in the pan like a pancake and flipped it perfectly first time.

Once their time was up all ten celebrities presented Marco with their egg dishes at the pass and a verdict was delivered.

Jim was told his omelette “tasted of egg”. Jim later admitted in the confessional that he had thought about cheating.

“I was going to cheat. I’ve read Marco’s book and I know how he likes his fried eggs done,” said Jim.

Marco cracked a joke over Paul’s omelette saying: “It tastes like overcooked toast. Think about it,” in reference to Paul’s novelty hit single ‘Toast’.

Marco was unimpressed by Barry’s scrambled egg, but it was Brian’s attempted omelette that came in for the most abuse with Marco using it as a dishcloth because it was so rubbery.

“Is this a pancake you’ve made me?” asked Marco, and Brian re-named is dish “a pancake omelette”.

Afterwards in the confessional Brian said he was close to tears then:

“My eyes actually filled up. I thought to myself don’t cry. Because lets face it out of all the boys I am going to be the one who cries.”

Just when Marco thought the boys were going to be disappointing all round, Lee saved the day with two finely poached eggs, carefully presented on a floral plate.

“Nice choice of plate,” said Marco. “What’s very nice is the yokes are cooked perfectly,” he said to Lee. “Best out of all the boys.”

The girls were next to face the master’s palette, but before Marco even started to try anything he grabbed Abbey’s plate of two fried eggs and turned it upside down on the work top, with the cutting comment of: “It’s best to hide certain things.”

Rosie’s scrambled eggs were described as “half undercooked half overcooked” but Kelly’s he deemed worthy of eating. “I could enjoy that on toast, you’re doing rather well.”

Thinking the girls are doing better overall than the boys, Marco moved on to Anneka’s scrambled eggs but was non-plussed.

Adele was last – she decorated her scrambled eggs with sprinklings of pepper around the plate, to which Marco said: “So it’s all about presentation, not flavour at this point with you then?”

Putting up a swift protest, Adele quickly retorted that she would eat it herself – so Marco made her clean her plate.

“When you’ve finished eating it you can start cooking,” he said.

“Do you know how many calories are in that?” she replied cheekily.

Finally Marco turned back to Abbey who still had no idea why he had chosen to pick on her plate.

Looking up at Abbey, Marco asked: ”Look at the base of the egg. Do you like a bit of crunch with your egg?” A confused Abbey looked again at her plate only to realise she had fried them with shell in.

“Are you a member of Densa?” Marco joked at a hugely embarrassed Abbey.

The secret of frying an egg is basically to poach it in butter. Never forget that.”

Later in the confessional, Abbey said she was close to tears when Marco picked on her plate of eggs.

“I wanted to cry then, because I was shocked and he was picking on me,” said Abbey.

MARCO: WOMEN ARE THE BETTER SEX

He’s put them head to head to find out once and for all, but Marco has his own ideas about who on paper are the better cooks between men and women.

“Women in my opinion are better cooks than men in the sense that they have a better palette, because their sense of smell is more acute.

“They don’t take short cuts like men. They’re not as fast as men on the whole so they tend to be more precise in what they do.

“The reason why they tend not to rise to the top like chefs in that 3-star world is because they’re bullied.”

“When you think, apart from them not being as physically as strong as a man, you look at a kitchen at a 3-star level, it might have 20 chefs in it, well 18 of them are men, two of them are girls. So they are the minority, let’s not forget that, and so just the psychological approach you’ve now walked into this man’s world, you’re already handicapped, so you tend to be pushed into pastry or into larder.

“Very few girls make the stove because they are just not physically strong enough, or they haven’t been given that opportunity. But I do think, and I will always say, that women have better palettes and they’re more précised in what they do. And I was quite happy having girls in my kitchen, for the simple reason is, I could rely on them. They were never late, they were always clean and tidy, they were always smart, they never back-answered.

“They’re not as physically as strong as men, so therefore they feel the pain first. Once you start to get tired and you feel that pain, then your patience goes, you start to get emotional and you start to break, break down internally and I think that’s the big handicap with a woman in a kitchen.”

Hell’s Kitchen starts Live on ITV1 at 9pm on Monday 3rd September.