Finally, Gordon Ramsay has a friend: TV chef takes swipe at ‘whinging’ neighbours by praising a local who gifts him with fresh asparagus as he holes up in Cornwall

Gordon Ramsay, the TV chef has made a thinly-veiled dig at the Cornish locals who have berated him for relocating his family to his country home during the COVID-19 lockdown – by heaping praise on a kindly neighbour.

Gordon is isolating on the coast with his wife Tana and their five children – received a delivery of fresh asparagus, left by a local on his doorstep with a hand-written note, which read: ‘A little gift from the fields across your house.’

‘Now what a lovely, beautiful, generous little gift,’ the 53-year-old gushed. ‘C’mon, seriously, that’s literally growing in the back of my garden. Now that’s what I call love thy neighbour, see?

He added, sarcastically: ‘I’m sure one local will whinge about the asparagus!’

The anger is somewhat confused, however, as the Gordon and family retreated to their second home at the start of the lockdown, which is not against the government’s rules.

While people with second homes are not allowed to travel back and forth, choosing one home and sitting out the lockdown in it is not against official advice.

Yet the Cornish locals appear to be out for blood – with one shopper seen berating the chef for parking his car outside a local store.

The seething local confronted Gordon about the way the car was parked and the size of it. The Hell’s Kitchen star kept his cool throughout.

The man then walked off and Gordon got into his car clutching a small bag of shopping and a coffee.

It comes as locals in the West Country called for tougher action to be taken on people fleeing to their holiday homes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Second home owners were accused of sneaking into the area in the dead of night, and local authorities have now asked for road blocks to be put in place in order to stop people getting into tourist hot spots now on.

Villagers are worried Gordon may have brought the virus with him from London and want him ‘the hell out of Cornwall’ and have even threatened to expose his address if he doesn’t leave, The Sun reports.

In messages seen by the newspaper, nearby residents vented their frustration in a Facebook group called You Shouldn’t Be Here.

One user wrote: ‘The big s*** should take himself and his family the hell out of Cornwall.’

Another said: ‘Wealthy second homers think making a few quid means they are immune from the virus and any rules. They are arrogant at this best of times, this has shown how bad some of them are.’