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Middle-class supermarket Waitrose has followed in the footsteps of its less glamorous competitors Sainsbury's and Aldi by enlisting the help of celebrity chefs to boost sales.

But where Sainsbury's long-running partnership with Jamie Oliver and Aldi's ad campaign featuring Phil Vickery rely on just one famous face, Waitrose has outdone them both by appointing two celebrities.

And an unlikely pair they are: domestic goddess Delia Smith and culinary wizard and three-Michelin-starred super chef Heston Blumenthal.

The pair has been appointed as "food ambassadors for the Waitrose brand, sharing their expertise and showcasing recipes". Which basically means that, over the next three years, they will appear in TV and print ads enthusing about Waitrose's range of products.

In a first for British TV, Waitrose will broadcast a new advert every week for the rest of the year demonstrating a new recipe, which will run for the entire length of the ad break. The campaign will kick off on 15 March. 

The partnership, a first for Waitrose which has never before used celebrity chefs, may come as a surprise to hardcore Delia fans who will no doubt remember her rant against celebrities endorsing products. 

The deal also comes just months after a leaked BBC report alleged Delia had "limited appeal" relegating her to the "occasional sparkle" category.

Everybody loves Raymond Blanc but his latest tirade has left even one of his biggest fans (moi) slightly bewildered.

To grab a few headlines and promote his latest cookery show, Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets which kicked off on the BBC last night, the French chef has lashed out at the TV industry for sensationalising food.

The two-Michelin-starred chef patron of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire said he had refused offers to appear on reality TV shows including ITV's Hell's Kitchen and the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

"I did a lot of shows in the 1980s, but I chose to stop because TV started sensationalising food," he told the TV Times.

"I don't want to be remembered as a prima ballerina; nor do I want to beat people around the head. That's not cuisine - it's sensationalism!"

Raymond clearly has a point here but has he forgotten his very own TV show The Restaurant which gives people with absolutely no hospitality training or experience the chance to run their own restaurant?

Isn't that just a tiny bit of sensationalism too?

Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant winners JJ and James unpopular choice

ITV has been fined £1,660 for animal cruelty after celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo killed and ate a rat on reality TV series I'm a Celebrity Get Me Of Here.

The Italian chef, who was crowned King of the Jungle last December, came under fire from the RSPCA in New South Wales, Australia, after he and fellow contestant actor Stuart Manning caught, killed and cooked the rodent.

The killing happened while the pair was sent into exile and put on meagre rations of rice and beans, which prompted them to eat the rat to get "more protein".

A court in Sydney heard that the rat was initially stabbed with a knife but took a minute and a half to die suffering unnecessary pain in the process.

While D'Acampo and Manning were originally charged with animal cruelty themselves, the charges were dropped after ITV admitted that production staff allowed them to kill the rat.  Apparently their only concern was whether eating the rodent would make them sick, rather than whether they were breaking any laws.

ITV was fined $3,000 (£1,660) and ordered to pay $2,500 (£1,390) in costs.

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! winner Gino D'Acampo says he doesn't regret killing and eating a rat on the programme, despite being charged with animal cruelty.

The TV chef, who was crowned King of the Jungle after winning the reality TV show on Saturday, has been presented with a court attendance notice for 3 February 2010 after he and fellow contestant actor Stuart Manning caught, killed and cooked the rodent.

The RSPCA in New South Wales, Australia, said it was "not acceptable" that a rat had been killed as part of a performance.

Chief Inspector David Oshannessy said: "The allegation is that an animal was cruelly treated on the set. It was a rat that was killed. There is a code of conduct in New South Wales that dictates how animals can be used. The killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable."

However, the D'Acampo said he has no regrets.

"I don't regret one single thing I did in the jungle to feed my campmates. It was the best recipe I ever did. It was beautiful," he told The Sun. 

Gordon Ramsay's unpopularity seems to have reached a new low as his latest season of the F Word has been moved to a late-night slot.

Usually screened at 9pm, the Channel 4 show has been shifted to a 10pm slot after ratings dropped to less than two million for the first couple of shows of the new series.

Worried bosses are also re-editing episodes to appeal more to food fans, according to the Mirror.

Last night's show was scheduled to show actress Kelly Brook making stuffed peppers (how inspiring!) but she was edited out to focus on independent restaurants and recipes.

Channel 4 reportedly said the programmes had been rescheduled for "strategic purposes prior to the series' launch". Oh reeeeeaaally...

What's with celebrity chefs turning themselves into cartoon characters at the moment?

Just weeks after it was announced that Gordon Ramsay will be turned into a stop-motion animation character, US enfant terrible Anthony Bourdain has followed suit and turned his life into a cartoon.

All this, of course, follows last year's programme, Little J, which saw Jamie Oliver as a 10-year-old trying to find the secret to becoming a great chef. 

Bourdain's show is a six-part animated web series, entitled Anthony Bourdain's Alternate Universe. According to the Travel Channel's website for it, it will allow viewers a glimpse into his "personal and unique view of the world that lives in his imagination".

Here's the trailer so you can make up your own mind.

Just when you thought Gordon Ramsay couldn't sink any lower, he goes and does something so unbelievably lacking in integrity that you realise there really is no limit to the man's desire to dominate the world.

No, he's not planning to roll out a chain of restaurants with outlets in every city across the planet, nor is he launching a book on how to offend an entire country. It's worse.

According to US entertainment magazine Variety, Ramsay has agreed to a stop-motion animation series based on none other than himself.

Called Gordon Ramsay, At Your Service the half-hour comedy will take "the essence of who he is and have a bit of fun with it," according to Cuppa Coffee, the Canadian animation studio tasked with creating the show.

It will be on offer at next month's Mipcom international TV sales convention, where buyers will have the opportunity to snap up the show.

Of course, there is no limit to where the story of animated Gordon Ramsay could take us, but once there, there'll be no point of return to credibility for any of us.

Picture supplied by Cuppa Coffee.

Tributes to the late Keith Floyd, who died this week of a heart attack, have been making waves across the media.

The great and good of the hospitality industry have been singing their praises of the legendary TV chef, who was adored by food lovers across the world.

Floyd, who had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June, died at his partner's home in Dorset on Monday night aged 65.

It has emerged that on his last day, Floyd, cigarette in one hand and glass of wine in the other, spent a leisurely lunch with long-time friend Celia Martin to celebrate her 65th birthday.

The pair went to celebrity chef Mark Hix's restaurant in Lyme Regis, Dorset, where they feasted al fresco on Champagne, oysters and partridge on the terrace.

"At the Hix Oyster and Fish House they began with two champagne cocktails on the sun terrace," reports the Daily Mail. 

"The lunch of oysters with potted shrimp followed by partridge - Floyd had actually ordered the grouse but was given the other dish by mistake - and perry jelly was washed down with a glass of white Burgundy and a couple of glasses of Cotes du Rhône."

After the lunch, Floyd settled at home in front of the TV where he later suffered the fatal heart attack.

As a "humorous tribute" to Floyd the Hix Oyster and Fish House yesterday offered a special on its menu, serving his main course as Keith Floyd's Last Lunch priced £21.50.

But the joke didn't go down all that well with Martin, who said: "I can't believe they would do anything that sick."

Keith Floyd, the legendary restaurateur, TV chef and bon viveur, has died following a heart attack aged 65.

He died at his partner's home in Dorset last night, according to the BBC. He had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June.

Floyd shot to fame in the 1980s with his flamboyant presenting style and his love of red wine and gutsy food.

He began his media career as a radio chef on Radio West, an independent commercial radio station in Bristol before being offered a role as a presenter on the BBC.

The celebrity chef went on to author 32 cookery books and present 18 television series, endearing him to audiences across the world.

The latest, Keith meets Keith, where actor and documentary-maker Keith Allen tracked down Floyd for a one on one interview, was televised last night on Channel 4.

Industry figures including Marco Pierre White and Heston Blumenthal have paid tribute to Floyd, with White saying "a little piece of Britain has died with him".

All seems not well in celebrity chef land and our favourite Saturday morning host Antony Worrall Thompson could be in for an embarrassing legal battle from two disgruntled former employees.

The week started out so well for Wozza, who on Monday celebrated the reopening of his pub the Greyhound in Peppard, Oxfordshire, along with fellow Ready Steady Cook regular Ainsley Harriott.

So what went wrong?

According to The Independent, former employee Richard de Wet, who helped set up the Windsor Grill, claimed Wozzer owes him and his wife £5,000 of holiday pay after being made redundant. The restaurant was one of the casualties of AWT Restaurants' collapse into administration.

Wozza apparently reassured the couple hours before they were due to board a flight to Thailand that they were going to get all of their payments. But he never kept his promise.

"This isn't about bad-mouthing Antony," de Wet said.

"I had a good time with him and I learned a lot. However, I think what he is doing is totally wrong. He said he treated the business like a big family. I think he was taking the piss."

All that over £5,000? Come on Wozza, you can do better than that.

Credit crunch forces Antony Worrall Thompson to close Greyhound