The F Word - Season 5 (2009)

In this episode, two Italian restaurants go head to head, cooking a menu of ravioli, venison, pork escalope and fig and frangipane tarts. Janet will be expanding on last year's experience raising veal calves to starting her own small holding. And Katie Price gets her hands dirty, cooking chicken kievs in the celebrity challenge.

Gordon's hunt for Britain's Best Local Restaurant takes on an Indian theme as his trio of expert tasters head off in search of the country's best curry house. With 3 million British customers popping out for a curry every year it's clear the nation has taken the dish to its heart. But will the F Word diners prefer traditional charm or a modern twist as Gordon puts two very different Indian restaurants, Curry Corner and Lasan, head to head? While the guests sample the curry cook off Lenny Henry gets emotional over his mum's Jamaican pepper pot soup and Janet gets down and dirty with some wiry-haired pigs. Finally Gordon completes the Indian theme as he heads off hunting halal-style in search of deer for his venison masala.

Gordon's quest for Britain's Best Local Restaurant continues and this time it is a heavyweight battle of French restaurants. The competing kitchens will both serve succulent foie gras to start, then pan-fried grey mullet and puy lentils go up against a rack of lamb with aubergine tempura. Both will finish with a classic French pudding, crepes suzette. To add to the French flavour, Gordon heads back to second home, Paris, in search of the perfect croissant. And farmer-in-waiting, Janet Street-Porter, expands her farm by helping birth some chicks.

Chopsticks are drawn on the F Word as Gordon hunts for the best local Chinese restaurant. And it's a show first as the macho chef heads up an all woman kitchen. Jian Wang from Edinburgh-based Chop Chop is a doyen of the dumpling with over 60 different types on her restaurant menu. She'll be charming the F Word diners with spicy garlic squid and trademark pork and coriander dumplings. Up against Jian in the Chinese cook off are Manchester twins, Lisa and Helen Tse, from Sweet Mandarin. The duo are the third generation of female Chinese chefs and are hoping their salt and pepper squid and mum's recipe for clay pot chicken can bag them the F Word title. In a break from the all-woman cook off, Gordon dredges up Chinese delicacy, mitten crab, from the bed of the River Thames and Janet Street-Porter takes her medley of animals off to show.

Gordon's got the eye of the Thai-girls, as the ladies of Yum Yum restaurant in North London take on the feisty females from Simply Thai restaurant in Middlesex in a battle to be crowned the F Word's best Thai restaurant. Proving he knows how to use his noodle, Gordon offers his version of every traveller's favourite dish, pad Thai, to some Buddhist monks. And Rory Bremner steps up to the hot plate in the celebrity challenge with a decent impression of a trifle.