Bonapartes, on Kirkgate, Silsden, was the first in a line of restaurants to fall victim to the new television series, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

The Channel 4 programme features celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay trying to save failing businesses from bankruptcy.

Owner Sue Ray, 53, believes the programme was contrived to make her look bad. Indeed, she claimed that hapless chef Tim Gray, from Skipton, whose incompetence is captured so vividly on film, was sacked before filming began.

He had answered an advert in Caterer magazine to feature in the programme without Sue knowing. She claimed that the film makers persuaded her to take him back just for the filming.

Another source of dispute was the return a month later. The scene was filmed at the same time as the rest of the programme, claims Mrs Ray.

She said: "They had to make good television. My reaction was tongue in cheek about it. That is on the funny side - it made me laugh."

As the Herald revealed earlier this month, Mr Gray has moved down the road to the Grouse, but has had offers to feature in other television programmes - Ready, Steady, Cook springs immediately to mind.

Matthew Greaves, head chef at the Grouse, said: "He has been working for me and still is as far as I am concerned but he is considering what he wants to do.

"My reaction to the whole thing is that he should never have been a head chef in the first place. He is fine at his job here and is taking direction from me - he is working fine. He was put into a position that he should never have been in.

"There are five of us working here and he is on the junior team. At the moment he is considering pursuing some career offers he has had."

Mrs Ray told the Herald that the most striking scenes from Tuesday's programme were heavily contrived.

"The kitchen was very much exaggerated. It is not filthy or grimy. We would have been shut down if it was that way," she explained. "They filmed after we had served 50 meals and we hadn't had a chance to clean it down. The rotting veg was outside waiting to be thrown out and Gordon brought it in to be filmed."

The infamous "scallops" scene, where viewers witness a foul-mouthed Ramsay running outside to be sick, and later hear Ramsay spout "they did their best to kill me with a rotten scallop", was, in Sue's opinion, also contrived.

"The scallops were on the side waiting to be thrown away. When Gordon asked Tim to cook them he didn't think for one minute he was actually going to eat one," she said.