There are some people who might like to re-arrange Gordon Ramsay's features. There's his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, sacked last autumn after 12 years as chief executive of Ramsay Holdings. Then there's Marcus Wareing, the chef Ramsay started out in business with in Aubergine in 1993, but who now says he "couldn't care less if they never spoke to each other again".

And not forgetting young Hell's Kitchen USA participant Joseph Tinnelly, who invited Ramsay outside to settle their argument after an expletive-laden exchange on last year's series. Then there's his wife Tana, who had to put up with allegations of his seven-year affair in 2008.

But last week, it emerged that Ramsay's red, puffy eyes were self-inflicted due to a €35,000 hair transplant job over the New Year break.

Speculation that he'd also had cosmetic surgery was dismissed by a friend who added, "some will call it vanity but to TV producers and Gordon, it's a pre-emptive action to stop him going on TV with thinning hair".

Ramsay says his four children, and some advice from Simon Cowell, prompted him to get laser treatment for the map of wrinkles on his craggy chin the previous year.

"I woke up in the morning and Matilda was trying to squeeze pound coins in there. In LA, it was 'Omigod, when did you go through the windscreen?' You put up with it, then you get f***ing sick of it. So I listened to what Simon said."

The re-branding of Gordon Ramsay is not just skin deep. Signs are that the three-times Michelin-starred chef wants to reform his character.

The recent Christmas with Gordon on Channel 4 was an 'F' word-free zone with the 44-year-old simply cooking up favourite festive dishes. That was in marked contrast to the Great British Nightmare screened a year earlier, in which 312 swear words were recorded in 103 minutes – almost all of them uttered by Ramsay of course.

Respected chef Angela Hartnett has worked with Ramsay for 15 years, and believes people are tiring of hard men. "People don't like the aggression so much. They no longer want to see him or Simon Cowell make people cry."

Business upsets and near bankruptcy will also have chastened the Glaswegian-born, Stratford-upon-Avon-raised Ramsay.

Restaurants throughout his global empire are failing in this recession, he's in debt to the tune of at least €4.5m, and his south London family home is in the control of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Outside of the business, the family are close friends with the Beckhams. And he likes to eat out at expensive restaurants run by others just to see what the competition is up to.

In one Paris restaurant last year, he recalled a chicken dish for two costing €260. "I'd get stabbed in this country if I charged that. Even if the chicken had its arse wiped every day by the farmer and they said its feathers were shampooed by John Frieda," he said with his customary colourful turn of phrase.