Chef Gordon Ramsay turns on the charm

Chef Gordon Ramsay comes across as the kind of guy who is naughtier than he is nice.

But Santa Claus is coming to town, and Ramsay has caught the holiday spirit. Fans will find this out when the popular Scottish-born foodie helps viewers prepare a festive three-course meal, step by step, in "Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live," which airs Tuesday on Fox.

"In this economic downturn, 'staying in' is the new 'going out,'" Ramsay said. "In terms of keeping it inspirational, from a personal point of view, that journey starting off with raw ingredients, and taking it to something phenomenal in 60 minutes is quite an adrenaline rush."

Ramsay's menu for the show consists of angel hair pasta with shrimp, chili peppers and tomatoes for the appetizer, Steak Diane with sautéed potatoes and peas as the main course, and a quick tiramisu for dessert. Read on for a list of ingredients and measurements to shop for and get ready, but not the recipes and directions, because Ramsay and Fox would like you to tune in, of course.

But that's part of the fun, right? To keep things interesting, the husband and father is using a low-frills kitchen not so different from yours and mine, so the experience is more authentic. For those who don't have television sets in their kitchens, Ramsay recommends using a laptop and going to www.fox.com/cookalong to follow the show's live Web stream. Recording the show is another option.

"You'll see how we cook from a professional stance in a domestic kitchen without being spoiled with a brigade of 25 chefs standing behind me," Ramsay said. "So it's raw. It's fun. For me, more important, it's a really great way of transforming some plain Jane ingredients into something quite magical.

"Yes, I am a driven, self-confessed perfectionist, but in a domestic scene, you know, I want to have that excitement with that journey, as well."

The special is also live, which means that if Ramsay wants to stay off Santa's bad-boy list and that of the FCC, he will have to refrain from those colorful four-letter, bleeped-out words for which he has become notorious on his Fox series "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares." Both shows will kick off new seasons next year.

"Of course, I will try not to swear," Ramsay said. "But I don't swear in unpressurized environments. I don't want to swear. We've all got swear jars at home, and unfortunately, mine has got the biggest pig because I'm always putting coins in there. So cooking live on a domestic front, I hold my hand up. I promise not to swear."