Rarely does a compliment cross the lips of the usually vituperative Gordon Ramsay.

As for grudges, once he’s made one he certainly knows how to hold it – as his daughter’s new mother-in-law, Caroline Peaty, can certainly attest.

But of all the enemies he’s made, there’s one Gordon has loathed more than any: his former boss, chef Marco Pierre White. He once described him as the living person he ‘dislikes the most’.

So what a surprise it is to hear on his new Netflix show, Being Gordon Ramsay, that after decades of denigrating him, he now has fond things to say about Marco, revering him – all of a sudden – as a father figure.

Extraordinarily, I can reveal this affection is very much reciprocated – so much so that after 30 years of war, peace has officially broken out between these two culinary titans.

Indeed Marco, 64, told me this week in an exclusive interview, how he now ‘loves’ Gordon, 59, whom he describes as a ‘beautiful’ man, and heaps praise on his former protege for being ‘brave’ enough to take part in the new documentary (albeit one produced by Ramsay’s own production company).

In fact, the Daily Mail can further exclusively reveal that, so deep is this new-found bond, the two former enemies have collaborated to drop a common old foe – and fellow chef – Jamie Oliver, from a future project they were all considering working on together.

It’s true that Gordon owes much to Marco: he got his first big break in his restaurant, Harveys, in Wandsworth, south west London, in the 1980s.

As for grudges, once he’s made one Gordon Ramsay (pictured) certainly knows how to hold it – as his daughter’s new mother-in-law, Caroline Peaty, can certainly attest

But of all the enemies he’s made, there’s one Gordon has loathed more than any: his former boss, chef Marco Pierre White (pictured). He once described him as the living person he ‘dislikes the most’ – but the pair’s feud appears to have thawed

Marco, the Enfant Terrible of the UK restaurant scene of the era, was known for his fiery temper and uncompromising standards that once reduced his tough guy apprentice to tears.

On his Netflix show, however, Gordon reflects warmly on those times, saying: ‘Marco was brutal in an incredible way. The hardest boss. When I started cooking, I didn’t have a father that “got” me and my career. I had a father that told me, you know, cooking was for women, it wasn’t a man’s job. 

‘Then I got into a kitchen with the first British chef ever to win three [Michelin] stars, the most prolific chef in this country, Marco Pierre White and he was like in fact a father figure. He had this gift, this Picasso, he put food on a plate like no other.’

He adds: ‘I was Marco’s right hand man. I went to hell and back every day for 18 hours a day six days a week. But the skills I was learning was at a rate of knots. I became good very quickly and he brought that out of me.’

These are dramatically different terms from how Gordon used to talk about his old boss. He once described him as a ‘two faced’ bruiser, who was ‘so bitter’ about his former employee’s success.

He may have had a point: Marco infamously once posed on a magazine cover with a facsimile of Ramsay’s head on a platter and was quoted saying: ‘Everything Gordon does is contrived, unnatural, derivative.’

The insults continued: Gordon spoke about how Marco compared him to ‘dog ****’ when they got in each other’s way during one service at Harveys. 

He also recalled in his autobiography, how the torment once became so unbearable that one night he put his head in his hands and cried.

Marco later commented: ‘I didn’t make Gordon Ramsay cry. He made himself cry. That was his choice to cry.’

More fuel for the fire between them came in 1998 when Ramsay stole the reservations book from Chelsea’s Aubergine restaurant where he was head chef – a serious act of sabotage – and blamed Marco, who Gordon believed wanted to take his job at the Michelin-starred establishment.

Marco threatened legal action. Nine years later, Gordon admitted. ‘It was me. I nicked it. I blamed Marco because I knew that would f*** him.’

Another cause of enmity was Gordon’s theory that Marco was to blame for his poor reviews from restaurant critics AA Gill and Giles Coren – not to mention the incident in 2000 when he turned up at Marco’s wedding to his third wife Mati, uninvited and with a TV crew in tow.

Marco was appalled. ‘I don’t want him as part of my life,’ he growled. But speaking to Marco today, it’s clear that where once there was jealousy and hostility there is now mutual respect. 

Certainly, they have common ground: both men have been marked by difficult childhoods.

Marco’s Italian mother died suddenly when he was six. Gordon’s violent alcoholic father walked out when he was a child.

More recently, the pair have bonded over their common troubles, with Marco’s struggles with his drug addict son, Marco Jr, an echo of Gordon’s own torment over his addict brother.

Ronnie Ramsay, less than two years Gordon’s junior, has been addicted to heroin for 40 years. In his new show the chef speaks of carrying a burden of guilt over Ronnie’s struggles.

The Daily Mail can further exclusively reveal that Gordan and Marco have collaborated to drop a common old foe – and fellow chef – Jamie Oliver (pictured), from a future project they were all considering working on together.

Meanwhile, Marco Jr, a former Big Brother contestant, was handed a three-year prison sentence in October last year for a £60,000 shoplifting spree. 

He was already in prison for other offences, all committed to fund his long-standing drug habit.

Marco said Gordon got in touch after hearing about his son. ‘Gordon sent me the most beautiful and sensitive and beautifully written text that anyone has ever sent. You know his brother is a heroin addict, so he understands the situation.

‘There is a lifetime of pain and guilt he has gone through, that we have been in. We have been in it together. He sent me this text, written from the heart and I was very moved by it.’

He adds: ‘Gordon is a beautiful man, he is truly a beautiful man. He had a dream and like me he made that dream into a reality. He deserves the success.’

It turns out the pair have been circling a reconciliation for ten years. In 2015, Gordon bid for three pictures of Marco by Bob Carlos Clarke that had been published in his famous White Heat, part memoir, part cook book, 25 years before.

Marco was rather thrilled Gordon wanted to buy a memento of their shared history. He said: ‘I heard he had bought three pictures. At the end of the night I stood up, lifted the picture off the wall and I wrote on the back of it: “The Ram, with love, the Bull MPW x” and hung it back up.’

This message – using their old nicknames for each other – was enough to spark contact.

Marco agrees their bond is something like a father-son relationship. ‘It goes deep with us,’ says Marco. ‘To him, I am “Chef”. You know, when we meet, he will greet me as his “Chef”, that is who I am to him.’

The reconciliation is so complete Marco reveals he has agreed to make a show with Gordon called The Rock N Roll Chef – something which will bring him out of his self-imposed countryside exile.

For these days Marco can be found at the Rudloe Arms, a ten-room hotel in Corsham, Wilts.

And while his influence is felt in the kitchens, he no longer cooks, having retired from the kitchen in 1999 when he gave back his three Michelin stars.

Of the new show, Marco says: ‘Gordon’s production company came to see me. They had asked Heston [Blumenthal] and they also saw Jamie Oliver.

‘Gordon arranged for them to see me – I was the last person on the list – and I said no [to them].

‘They asked me why and I said: Heston works very hard. He has three Michelin stars. Gordon worked very hard for his three Michelin stars. And I worked very hard for my three Michelin stars.

‘Jamie has never won a Michelin star. Not one. He is not part of our jigsaw. He’s very successful, he works very hard, but he is not part of it. They rang me back the next day and said: “You are absolutely right Marco. We understand. If Jamie is not part of it will you do it?” and I said yes.’

One of the first scenes to film will be a reunion between the three chefs: Marco, Gordon and Heston. One can imagine they will all remember their debts to Marco and their common pursuit of what he calls ‘the insane dream of perfection’.

And that, perhaps, is the greatest bond of all.