No April fool from me: as i said, I believe Fred Siriex is a very nice guy, and on one meeting many years ago at Galvin at Windows he was lovely - took us out onto the terrace to see the skyline at night and so on. My rant is definitely not 'anti' him; it's anti his current over-exposure (ditto Ramsey, the wee bald guy, etc).
With his a natural charm and personality he thoroughly deserves the success of his TV career, but he or his agent have, understandably perhaps, decided to make hay while the sun shines and for me it's now a case of 'enough already' - he is on just about every TV format going, we have life-size cut outs of him adorning Marks & Spencer, etc., etc.
Personally I find he is so over-exposed that his presence is now putting me off, rather than attracting me. I'd still rather have him than Ramsay, Gino or the wee bald guy any day, but at the moment all of them have me reaching for the off button...