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Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is to present a US version of MasterChef, which will be based on the ����ý series.

As in the UK, the programme will see amateurs with no cooking background competing against each other.

Ramsay says he's excited about the new series: "You're finding domestic talent. MasterChef is for the amateur.

"It really makes me excited to think about getting that young talent and preparing him or her."

MasterChef in the UK is presented by London chef John Torode and food critic Gregg Wallace.

'Going vegetarian'

But Ramsay says he won't be doing things exactly the same, especially when it comes to tasting the food.

He said: "I'm not very good at watching chefs stuff their faces. When I eat food and you're tasting, whether it's on camera or off camera, [it's] small bits. You don't have to wolf the whole thing down."

Ramsay, 43, has been busy in America over the past few months hosting Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live and Hell's Kitchen.

His new series of Kitchen Nightmares USA is also going out after America's top rated show, American Idol, this winter.

The chef is now back on TV in the UK with a three-part series on Channel 4, Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape, which sees him travel across India for a month.

He says he struggled with the vegetarian recipes.

"Lentils, pumpkins, I can't get excited with seeds," he said. "I don't want to sit down and eat a nut roast. I need meat, fish and chicken."