How love blossomed during infamously sweary Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares episode filmed in Sheffield

Richie Russell became one of the breakout stars of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares when he took the famously foul-mouthed Scot on at his own game in a notorious 2009 episode which featured an astonishing 310 bleeped-out expletives.

He was chef at the then Runaway Girl restaurant on Arundel Street, near Sheffield station, which became the fine-dining establishment Silversmiths following a successful rebrand overseen by Ramsay.

Also feeling the celebrity chef’s wrath on the show was then 18-year-old waitress Kirsty, for whom viewers were unaware a budding romance with Richie was on the menu.

A dozen years later, that love story is still going strong, with the couple now engaged and having had two adorable children together.

They are today living in Heeley, with Richie taking a break from the kitchen to become a stay-at-home dad and Kirsty working as a senior personal banker for NatWest.

Sharing a clip from the show, Richie said: “Who would have thought this little beautiful blonde here getting a bollocking off Gordon would end being my partner (soon to be wife hopefully!) and mother of two of my girls. She's still fit.”

Kirsty has fond memories of the programme, but Richie, who was surviving on three hours of sleep a night due to the punishing filming schedule, still finds it too embarrassing to watch after all these years.

“I’m proud of him and how he comes across on the show. We’ll still be walking through town and people will come up to him and say nice things like ‘you’re a hero, mate’,” said Kirsty.

“For me the show was a lot of fun but I know he found it very stressful and quite emotional at times.”

Kirsty jokes how one of her earliest memories of Richie is of him getting throwing a walkie-talkie and narrowly missing her but luckily that didn’t put her off.

They got together officially shortly after filming finished and were an item for two years before taking a break for five years, during which they stayed in touch, and then coupling up again for good.

Richie went on to work at Popolo restaurant in Leopold Square, followed by a short spell at Ego Mediterranean Restaurant & Bar and then Remo’s in Broomhill.

He decided to take a break from the industry following a health scare which left him needing heart surgery, and he is enjoying spending more time with the couple’s two children Eden, aged five, and Marnie, two.

Richie, who is now 50 and has a third child, Sasha, aged 20, says Kirsty was the ‘best waitress’ they had at Silversmiths and they couldn’t be happier together all these years later.

He and Kirsty remain big admirers of Gordon Ramsay’s, despite what he put them through, describing him as a ‘lovely person’.

Richie says he is often asked whether he put on his expletive-ridden rants for the show but insists that is not the case and both he and Kirsty are naturally potty-mouthed, though they’re able to rein it in for the children.

He still enjoys cooking at home and hasn’t ruled out pulling on his chef’s whites again one day, though he doesn’t miss the unsociable hours.