One can't even begin to imagine the length and strength of the four-letter-word torrent that was presumably unleashed from chef Gordon Ramsay's mouth last week when The News of the World printed allegations about his seven-year affair. But he must have cooled off, because almost immediately, with the paparazzi at the gates of his house, he staged the traditional celebrity "united front" photo-opportunity pose, holding hands with his wife as they strolled around outside the front of their home.

The allegations surround a seven-year affair Ramsay reportedly had with a woman named Sarah Symonds. Symonds has been working away at building a profile for herself, and tried to recruit PR guru Max Clifford to lend a hand earlier this year, in particular to publicise her book Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman, based on her previous experience as Jeffrey Archer's mistress, about which she appeared on The Late Late Show in February. No prizes for guessing what won't be in Mrs Ramsay's Christmas stocking in a few weeks.

The allegations are especially damaging for his business interests. Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited, which handles the business end of everything from his restaurants to his media appearances, happens to be run in partnership with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, who presumably won't be too happy with the reports that his son-in-law is cheating on his daughter. Ramsay is thought to be worth around €100m.

Ramsay's success certainly hasn't been an overnight one, but that said, he has amassed incredible amounts of money and fame in a short enough period. Moving out at 16 away from his "hard-drinking, womanising" father (paging Dr Freud) and his mother who was a nurse, he settled in a council flat in Oxfordshire with his elder sister, also a nurse. His talent for football was obvious at a young age, and Ramsay was training with Glasgow Rangers aged 18, when he virtually destroyed his knee with a nasty injury.

After enrolling in a catering school "by accident," he moved to London, and trained under the ruthless chef Marco Pierre White at the famous Harvey's restaurant. Ramsay's own intolerant, temperamental style as
a chef owes much to White's volcanic nature.

Remarkably, Ramsay opened his first restaurant just 10 years ago. Since then, his rise has been nothing short of meteoric. He has his finger in various pies, so to speak, across the globe; apart from his base in London, there are interests in New York, LA and Florida, Prague and Paris, and Tokyo and Dubai. In 2006, he was awarded an OBE for his services to the foodie world. Last year, he opened a restaurant at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, to rave reviews and long waiting lists for reservations from foodie fans with fat wallets.

His first foray into television was the 1998 documentary Boiling Point, which documented his attempt at earning three Michelin stars. A follow-up, Beyond Boiling Point, was broadcast in 2000.

It was obvious pretty quickly that Ramsay was TV gold. The imposing figure of a man over six foot two in height with size 15 feet and a past at Glasgow Rangers, the facial scars, his pursuit of perfection, and most notably his intensely abrasive style of theatrical swearing and temper tantrums.

He was snapped up by TV networks, with Channel 4's Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, a programme which saw the chef steamroll through failing restaurants around Britain and beyond, now in its fifth series. Another programme, The F Word, first broadcast in 2005, heightened his profile further, but it was Hell's Kitchen which really shot his star out of the stratosphere.

Built around the concept that kitchens are war zones and competing chefs deserve to be humiliated ritually on a weekly basis, Hell's Kitchen saw Ramsay tear shreds off competing teams of chefs, cooking for real people in a real restaurant. It has had its celebrity version offshoots in the UK, but when the American Fox network picked up on a US franchise of the programme, Ramsay's fame went global. He currently has a £5m (€6m) four-year deal with Channel 4 for any further programmes.

No stranger to tough times out of the kitchen, Ramsay nearly drowned while filming a puffin hunt for The F Word in Iceland earlier this year after falling off a cliff into freezing water. He might need to utilise the survivor instinct during that frightening time to weather this latest more personal storm.

The News of the World is justifying the printing of its story by saying Ramsay has built a portion of his career, popularity and personal brand by claiming to be a family man and a dedicated husband, saying that Tana is the only woman for him. She in turn has capitalised on this happy-clappy image of a content relationship and family, by publishing cookery books of her own entitled Family Kitchen and Home Made.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the allegations. Sarah Symonds is most likely working with The News of the World to optimise the exposure of her story, and it is very likely that more details of her affair will be spread across Sunday newspaper pages over the next few weeks.

Ramsay might want to take a leaf out of his close friend David Beckham's book of turning bad publicity into good. In 2004, the first Beckham kiss-and-tell regarding Rebecca Loos broke. Becks is still one of the biggest and most-loved celebrities in the world. Perhaps there's hope for Ramsay after all.

CV

Born: 8 November, 1966

Career: Ramsay has been awarded a total of 13 Michelin stars throughout his career as a chef and restaurateur. He has also amassed a TV empire of tough-talking reality cooking programmes.

Personal life: Married (although, possibly not for long) to Cayetana 'Tana' Hutcheson, a teacher, with whom he has four children.

In the news: Allegations of a lengthy affair broke this week threatening to derail his relationship and career.