Richard Corrigan was feeling the heat. Last week on BBC2, the Meath-born chef was pitted against Paul Rankin in a competition to cook for Queen Elizabeth's 80th birthday. In the Northern Ireland regional heat of the Great British Menu competition, Rankin's dishes looked to be inching ahead. He played teasing mind games, prodding Corrigan about his "chefy" and avant-garde dishes.

On the day of the fish course, the normally ebullient Corrigan, who was serving poached turbot with oysters and seaweed, was eying Rankin's grilled trout enviously. He wasn't prepared to concede defeat however, until both chefs had dined on the other's dish. Hugging the bowl of pink trout close to his barrel chest, Corrigan admitted frankly: "I'd prefer to eat this than the turbot." The chef, who grew up in Ballivor, Co Meath, has never shied from telling it as he sees it.

In 1999, when he was publishing his first cook book, Corrigan forswore the celebrity chef route. "I've stayed away from this Ready, Steady Cook lark, all this TV, all this waving your hands to make you stand out from the rest. I don't do it and I've no time for it. They don't ring me any more because I'm so rude to them," he said.

Since then, however, there has been a sea change. Gordon Ramsay admonished Corrigan for not taking his culinary message to a wider audience: "You should pull your f****** finger out and do some TV." Last summer, the Irishman signed up with the BBC's Full on Food cookery series.

For Corrigan, the chef is nothing without the best quality produce. Renowned for unfussy, seasonal cooking at Lindsay House, his Michelin-starred restaurant in London's Soho, he used the programme to champion his belief.

Beloved by critics and audiences, Corrigan was working hard to promote Irish produce. On the BBC series, he travelled the length and breadth of Ireland, opening up the nation's larder.

Irish suppliers soon found, however, the chef's influence was a double-edged sword. Appearing on The Late Late Show two weeks ago, he spoke with disgust about the quality of Irish chickens in supermarkets. The following week,...