Gordon Ramsay travels to India for the first time to experience the stunning diversity of its culinary traditions, immersing himself in all aspects of Indian culture. Gordon's odyssey begins in the north of India where he's thrown in at the deep end, cooking in the cramped pantry car of an express train before working for a cantankerous royal chef and making tandoori chicken for a tough crowd of Delhi food critics.

Gordon heads off the tourist track into impenetrable north-east India, home of the country's best-kept culinary secrets. Leaving the 21st-century behind, he immerses himself in the life of a local meat-loving tribe in Nagaland, visits Assam to enter a housewives' competition, and finally heads off to Calcutta where he sets up shop among the street food stalls hoping to tempt the local foodies into buying his curry.

Gordon ends his Indian food adventure by travelling south to Kerala for the ultimate seafood curry. Later, in Tamil Nadu, he tries bullock racing and also faces his biggest culinary nightmare: living in an ashram where the only food on the menu is vegetarian. The last stop finds Gordon in Mumbai where he samples street food in Asia's largest slum and, later, cooks alongside one of India's top chefs, Hermant Oberoi.

In Vietnam, the culinary rule seems to be that if it moves, eat it. Gordon samples a host of surreal, challenging and delicious foods including still-beating snake heart, freshly slaughtered barbecue duck, and basket-caught squid. In Ho Chi Minh City, Gordon visits the city's finest snake restaurant. In Hanoi he grapples with the ferocious Madam Duck and begs her to reveal her secret duck recipe.

Malaysia's food is a melting pot of influences and Gordon has just a week to master the country's best known dishes. He's taken under the wing of some of the country's best female chefs, who waste no time showing him who's in charge. He joins Auntie Rupa as she prepares a Buddhist feast for thousands of pilgrims, while Gordon is under pressure cooking his first Malaysian curry for the country's Prime Minster.

Gordon joins Thailand's answer to the WI as they compete for the acclaimed title of Best Fish Paste; he's put to work by a formidable home cook in exchange for the secrets to her secret spicy sausage recipe; and satisfies his lust for adventure on a diving trip for giant oysters in Krabi. At the end of the week Gordon meets his match on Thai national TV in a cook-off against the foremost Thai celebrity chef McDang.