I think maybe you can go over the top with something as basic as cooking a meal.
Sorry, but I disagree. That's like saying you can go over the top with something as basic as singing a song or playing a tune or writing a story. To me good food is as important a sensual pleasure as good music or good literature.
I find people who regard food as 'merely fuel' to be very depressing, and feel sorry for them. If you can find them, two films which can help you appreciate the sensual importance of food are 'Tampopo' and 'Babette's Feast'.
Cooking may be 'only' cooking, but it is also capable of huge sophistication and subtlety, with a vast number of variables. It is an art form.
Ramsey is an excellent chef because he doesn't cut corners, because he has a good palate, a creative imagination and because he is a perfectionist. That he can also be a bully is a pity, but he did learn his trade at the hands of a notorious bully (albeit a bully who was also an excellent chef). It's a pity he's taken on the mantle of his mentor - and it's to Angela Hartnett's credit at the Connaught that she is able to be a nice person and an excellent chef (though not yet in Ramsay's league).
To call him a prat on the basis of his television work is facile. It's like calling a musician a prat when you've never heard him or her play and have just seen them talk. The man may have traits that you find abrasive, but he's certainly not a prat. A prat to me is someone who debases himself or herself for the television by showing people how to cut corners and how to disguise mediocrity with a few frills. Fanny Craddock and Ainsley Harriot spring to mind in that genre.