Amanda dishes the dirt

The 'punch-up' proves her point. 'No one saw what led up to me losing my temper,' she says, puffing furiously. 'Instead, I was made to look like a mad old woman who couldn't cope.'

In fact, the problem began on Saturday morning. Despite not getting to bed until 4am, Amanda was in the kitchen ready for work at 8am.

'Gordon was about to tell me what disgusting bit of dead animal I was going to have to deal with that morning, but just before he began I suddenly thought I was going to be sick and pass out,' she reveals.

'I asked to be excused, and dashed off-screen where the nurse insisted on taking my blood pressure. Gordon followed me, and despite it being obvious that I felt absolutely wretched, proceeded to shout and scream at me and accuse me of spoiling everything and trying to get out of working.

'The reality was I was desperate not to be sick on camera. I was furious with him. Luckily, my blood pressure was all right and, after drinking some water, I went back to work.

'An hour or so later, I was asked to collect a heavy box of apples from the walk-in fridge freezer. I'd been complaining for three days that the light didn't work in there. It was very dark, and the floor was a skating rink and very dangerous.

'I had asked if someone could do something about it. They hadn't, so inevitably I slipped and fell. I didn't hurt myself, but again I asked for a light to be fitted, saying someone would break their neck if they weren't careful.

'Instead of listening to me, Gordon said he wanted to discuss speciality dishes. He told me to stop talking about it. I just saw red and took a swipe at him. He grabbed my arms very firmly and shouted, "Don't raise your hand at me".'

'He was pretty strong - all that chopping has given him powerful arm muscles - but all I thought was "I missed you the first time, you silly little man, but I won't again". In all, I'm told I tried to whack him five times.

'Meanwhile, he started to grapple with me, then shouted for security, who turned up and prised us apart.'

She roars with laughter, then asks: 'What 37-year-old man calls for outside help to deal with a 68-year-old woman? Am I so intimidating and strong? Where is his dignity?'

Amanda admits that, afterwards, she burst into tears - but they were tears of anger, not distress. 'I was angry at him, angry at myself for doing the show and completely exhausted.'

Viewers saw a much calmer Gordon Ramsay looking as if foie gras wouldn't melt in his mouth, saying to camera: 'I am so relieved I no longer have to carry that liability or keep sending the food back because it is c***. It's draining on me and draining on the team.'

That incident is not the only thing that has been manipulated and changed in the editing of Hell's Kitchen, according to Amanda. 'Everyone is made to appear as the powers-that-be decided they would in advance.

'It's easy if cameras are rolling all day. You just pick the second when someone looks miserable, and imply they are like that all the time, whereas a lot of the time we were roaring with laughter.'

Gordon, however, was always presented as being macho and strong, and in the kitchen all the time, when in fact he only turned up for three or four hours a day, she says.

'The rest of the time it is left to his henchmen, Mark Sergeant and Angela Hartnett. No wonder he had all that energy to scream and shout when he did appear.'

Amanda says she barely recognised the participants when she watched Hell's Kitchen for the first time on TV.

'I think they were picked to be shown in a good or bad light and everything conformed to that. John Leslie's ex, Abi Titmuss, for example, seems to be a favourite. She is made to look angelic, which is surprising as she talked dirty about sex almost non-stop.

'I am as broad-minded as they get, but there is a line to draw and she was disgusting. Al Murray, the comedian, was the same. His sexual language make me feel disgusted and I couldn't connect with him.'

Former MP Edwina Currie, who is also taking part, appears as totally selfish in the programme, whereas she was a mother to us all,' says Amanda. 'She used to make sure I was drinking enough water, give me chocolate to keep up my sugar levels and even massaged my feet. I think they are so against her, they even insisted the poor woman wear a hairnet.

'They said she had to for health and safety reasons, but there were so many unhealthy things going on that I am sure it was to make her look as ghastly as possible.'

Others, too, weren't shown in the best light.

'Belinda Carlisle, the former pop star who has now been voted off, was shown as a snivelling wreck, but is a highly intelligent woman and one of the best cooks there. And Matt Goss, from the Eighties band Bros, was made to look entirely placid, but he is hilariously funny and kind.'

The only two to come out of Hell's Kitchen well so far are James Dreyfus, star of sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, and ex-Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison - both of whom Amanda adores. 'As for me,' she continues, 'I think I looked a mad downtrodden woman of 98 rather than 68.'

Amanda agreed to take part because she thought it would be fun, and she would learn how to cook properly.

'In fact, I was completely out of my depth. I couldn't understand what they were talking about. I got terribly bored of filleting things and digging out fish eyes.

'As a means of protection, I behaved like a seven-year-old or the demented housekeeper I played in Michael Frayn's play Noises Off. It was the only way I could survive.'

Now, at home in London's Covent Garden, she is more relaxed about the experience - and both hilarious and astute in her description of the events. Two new Gordon Ramsay cookery books sit on the side table.

'They were given to me yesterday with a knife inserted into them,' she says. 'I think I'll throw them into the bin.'

In some ways she feels she has escaped from prison. 'We had to work from 8am to 4pm. We then had an hour's break, and worked again from 5pm to midnight,' she says.

'I think we were deliberately deprived of sleep so that we'd look exhausted and be unable to cope.

'It is the psychology of treating prisoners: if you don't let them sleep or rest, and shout at them from morning to night there comes a point at which they will cave in and do anything.

'I think the reason behind it is that they wanted a chef's life to look really hard, and show how we couldn't do it. But let's face it darling, it's not rocket science, and if we had more sleep we could easily have managed.'

What particularly annoys Amanda is that they didn't show how much laughter there was during the series.

'We roared with mirth about everything that was going on and what we were expected to do, but they much prefer to show us browbeaten,' she sighs.

Amanda hopes James Dreyfus wins, but is herself determined never to go in a kitchen again.

'So much of it is pointless. How can you pour five bottles of wine in a saucepan to reduce it to twoanda-half teaspoonfuls of sauce? Frankly, I am too old for all of that, and would rather sit down and drink one bottle.

'I couldn't understand most of it, and never managed to make a soufflè - despite what you saw on screen. That is another cheat. They got someone else to make it for me, and pretended it was mine.'

Initially, after her fight with Ramsay, she thought she'd stick it out. 'I went and got my Cos lettuce and started making a salad, but over the course of the day I decided I had to go.

'I was so sick of food, preparing it and talking about it. The thing about Gordon is that he only has one act.

'I half-admire him as a showman, and recognise that he can be charismatic, but he is also a typical bully and when he becomes deliberately, personally cruel, it's offensive and deeply unfunny. He has developed a technique of alternately praising you, then knocking you down so you don't know where you are.

'In the end you are so pleased not to be browbeaten that you become totally placid.

'But,' she adds, 'he can also be so near the edge with his temper that he could easily tip over. He and his series are as full of hot air as one of his soufflês.'