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In one corner stands restaurant boss Caron Ciminera. In the other, no-nonsense TV chef Gordon Ramsay. Let the fight begin!

And boy did the sparks fly when the two met up at Caron's Carmarthenshire eaterie - on camera at least.

For she has revealed the foul-mouthed celebrity was very different when filming stopped.

She added: "He can also be a real sweetie.''

The battlefield will be laid out bare for all to see next week in the latest edition of the Channel 4 reality show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

Caron and husband Mike had been going 12 rounds with customers every night, as well as losing anything up to £1,000 a week in business.

Enter Gordon Ramsey, who finds himself cast as a marriage counsellor in a culinary battlefield.

Insiders are already hinting the foul-mouthed celebrity chef may at last have met his match after his daily clashes with Caron.

The first three days of his visit to The Fish and Anchor in Lampeter saw him and Caron nose-to-nose in a series of furious rantings.

They finally ended up as pals - but not without explosive fireworks first.

The sharp-tongued celebrity chef was at the Llanwnnen restaurant for a week during September as part of the fifth series of the hit reality show. He also stopped off in Swansea.

In each episode Gordon visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just a week.

He then revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence.

And he didn't mince his words when it came to sorting out the kitchen troubles of Michael and Caron.

"My wife and Gordon spent three days just screaming at each other," said ex-boxer Michael, who has run the restaurant for two years.

"It was a genuine clash of personalities.

"Our episode was scheduled to go out mid-series but then the producers decided to keep it until the end because they said it was the best one.

"The clips of Gordon and Caron are used in all the TV trailers."

Michael is hoping the publicity will give his business a much-needed boost.

"We put ourselves up for this TV programme because we couldn't have kept our business going as we were," he said.

"Gordon helped us in loads of ways. He loved the area and our local produce.''

The last-ditch attempt to reverse the restaurant's disastrous reputation and put some love back into the kitchen, as well as onto the plates, worked.

"It wasn't without its problems,'' added Michael.

"Gordon really was as fiery as you see him on TV, although off-camera he calmed down a lot.''

The Cimineras also exchanged a tirade of angry insults between themselves during filming. But both say the experience was worth it.

The restaurant's massive menu, stretching to around 100 options, was knocked down and refined, and they are now using Mike's Italian background as the basis for their newly successful business.

"We used to have the best of everything but no real direction,'' said 48-year-old Mike.

"That has all changed - and for the better.''

Caron said she and Gordon were barely talking by the end of the first day's filming.

She added: "He was really winding me up, and I am not the type of girl to just take something like that. The first few days were bad.

"But off-camera he was a real sweetie and very different to the person you see on TV.''

At one point she joined the Michelin-starred chef for a ballroom dancing session at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, where he tried to teach her some finesse.

"He told me I wasn't graceful enough in my job at front of house at the restaurant and thought it might knock some of that into me,'' said Caron.

"I think it helped.''

The idea to bring Gordon in was first raised by Michael earlier this year.

"It was one of his daft, spur-of-the-moment things he comes up with,'' said 40-year-old Caron.

"But we were chosen and the film crew were here in September.

"Yes, there were lots of angry rows and there were times when we were hardly speaking.

"But it all worked out brilliantly in the end. We needed to do something, and the business is stronger as a result of it.

"But I think you could say he well and truly met his match in me!"