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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

Luxury hotel group Von Essen is considering a restructure of the restaurant offering at Cliveden in Berkshire. 

The company confirmed that it was looking to potentially reshuffle the operation at the hotel following industry rumours that Chris Horridge, head chef at the property's Waldo's restaurant, was leaving. 

"We are considering a possible restructure at Cliveden and have no further details," a spokeswoman for Von Essen said. 

A restructure of the operation at Cliveden could see the closure of Waldo's restaurant, where Horridge, who declined to comment, has been head chef for just under a year. 

He joined the property last spring from the Bath Priory, where he held a Michelin star, replacing Robert Thompson, who had left after just eight months to set up his own restaurant on the Isle of Wight. 

A Great British Menu contestant Horridge has garnered critical acclaim for his health-conscious approach to fine dining. At Waldo's he offers a nutritionally-balanced tasting menu which contains no sugar, dairy or wheat. 

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.

Gordon Ramsay's ability to spot a good restaurant is called into question by The Daily Telegraph's restaurant critic, Jasper Gerard, in his review of The Pheasant in Keyston, Cambridgeshire.

While the food at the gastropub had been portrayed on the F Word during Ramsay's search for the best local restaurant in the UK as accomplished and delicious, Gerard is served a baffling starter and chewy duck. He also finds the décor unloved and "rubbish" and the service unwelcoming.

"Chefs look down on critics because we can't cook, but this experience confirms that chefs can't critique," he says.

An uninspiring looking restaurant - Faanoos - on a suburban street in west London results in a surprisingly good experience for Matthew Norman of The Guardian.

"Early in the decade though it may be for long-term predictions, I can't imagine the next 10 years producing a more pleasingly curious or curiously pleasing meal than the one at Faanoos," he declares, having enjoyed a lavish selection of Persian dishes at ridiculously low prices.

In complete contrast, The Observer's Jay Rayner is convinced that his meal at The Criterion, on London's Piccadilly Circus will probably be his worst of 2010.

Now owned by a group of entrepreneurs from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, the Criterion serves Rayner a shot glass of tangerine liquid which makes him wince, scorched roast venison, overcooked sea bass and langoustine which had not been rid of its intestines.

Meanwhile, Martin Ivens heads out to The Pearson's Arms in Whitstable, Kent, for The Sunday Times and enjoys friendly, hospitable service and locally sourced pub food. He says the restaurant is well priced and is keen to return to a venue where the quaint, but warm interior, was "a cheerful tonic".

The Independent's Tracey MacLeod finds it refreshing to choose between dishes that were almost completely unfamiliar at Georgian restaurant Tamada in north London. But while the food is good, she says the chilly, empty modern restaurant fails to capture the spirit of Georgian conviviality.

Raymond Blanc last night named JJ Goodman and James Hopkins as the winning couple in the third series of The Restaurant.

But while the pair, who ran the Summer House restaurant during the show, were over the moon, the public reaction to their win has been less than kind.

JJ and James, whose restaurant concept is food paired with cocktails, beat Christopher Hackett and Nathan Gooding to the title of The Restaurant. During the series' final both couples were asked to serve a banquet for Lord and Lady Arran and their guests at their stately home in Devonshire.

While Chris's menu went down well with the Arrans' guests, JJ's lack of experience in the kitchen proved a disaster, with his risotto tasting like "wallpaper paste" according to judge Sarah Willingham, and his unset sorbet being turned into a Champagne cocktail.

However, Blanc praised the pair for their consistency. "One of you has got something, something which kept you consistently in the competition," he said announcing they were the winners.

"It is the idea which truly excites you. And even in the final, concept saved you."

The public reaction to JJ and James winning The Restaurant has been anything but supportive, with the Twitter brigade having a real moan about the results.

Cult Japanese stadium cooking show Iron Chef is set to come to the UK next year.

The show, which has been a major success in the US, is based on a stylized cooking competition featuring accomplished guest chefs battling one of the show's resident Iron Chefs in a timed cooking battle.

UK producer and distributor the Television Corporation has just signed a deal with Fuji Television to bring Iron Chef to the UK. The deal gives the company the option to produce the show in the UK and work with Fuji in building the brand across Europe.

Each episode of Iron Chef UK, which is expected to air on Channel 4 next summer, will see four guest chefs challenge the yet-to-be-named resident Iron Chefs in a cooking competition built around a specific theme or ingredient.

If you're a "confident and charismatic" chef and are available for filming between 4-26 February 2010 here's your chance to get your 15 minutes of fame.

Contact producers by emailing possible.contestant@iwcmedia.co.uk before the 9 January deadline. 

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. 

TV chef Gino D'Acampo has been crowned King of the Jungle after winning the final of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

The Italian chef beat television presenter Kim Woodburn and snooker star Jimmy White to second and third places after three weeks in the Australian jungle.

During the course of the reality TV show D'Acampo was forced to eat rotten eggs, cockroaches, a crocodile's tongue and rhino beetles to win a dinner for his fellow contestants.

the chef told presenters Ant and Dec he was excited to be getting back into "some kind of civilisation very soon".

"These three weeks have been crazy, up and down. I don't think there's ever been a day when I've thought, 'what am I doing here, I should be at home doing something else' - I really enjoyed every bit of the experience," the chef said.

D'Acampo is the third celebrity chef to have appeared in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! after Antony Worrall Thompson (2003) and John Burton-Race (2008) whose wife famously shut his New Angel restaurant in Dartmouth while he was on the show.

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...