Not for the first time, notoriously profane chef Gordon Ramsay should have kept his mouth shut. His demand for “stringent laws” against serving produce out of season in British restaurants might seem like a harmless piece of publicity-seeking from a shrewd businessman. After all, even Gordon Brown’s desperately insecure government is unlikely to be bounced by Mr Ramsay into fining his rivals if they serve up tomato soup in December.

Sadly, Mr Ramsay’s self-serving pronouncement cannot simply be ignored. The chef – whose restaurants grace Boca Raton, New York, Tokyo, Dubai, Dublin, Versailles, Prague and London – is concerned about the impact of air-freighted food on the planet. Leave aside the incongruity of hearing these qualms from a man with a restaurant in Heathrow Airport. Our complaint is that serving imported food should be a source of pride, not shame.