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Award winning TV chef Gordon Ramsay felt his father-in-law treated him like "a performing monkey" while working to build up his restaurant empire, a court heard.

Mr Ramsay accused Christopher Hutcheson of using a ghost writing machine to "forge" his signature by making him personally liable for the rent on a historic pub.

He said Mr Hutcheson was getting "up to no good" in the office while he was made responsible for the £640,000-a-year rent on the York & Albany pub near Regent's Park in London.

Mr Ramsay has gone to court to ask a judge to grant a declaration that the rental agreement is not binding because his signature was used without his permission in 2007.

Mr Hutcheson was business manager for the Ramsay group of companies until the chef sacked both him and wife Tana's brother, Adam, on the grounds of "gross misconduct" in 2010.

The owner of the York & Albany, film director Gary Love, has described Mr Ramsay's allegation as an "absurd" attempt to wriggle out of his commitments.

On Friday, during the court hearing's second week, the chef was asked in cross-examination about emails in which he expressed concerns about how Mr Hutcheson was managing the business.

Romie Tager, Mr Love's QC, suggested to Mr Ramsay: "You were complaining about him. You thought of him as treating you like a performing donkey - making you overwork away from the office while he was up to no good in the office."

Mr Ramsay said "Yes", then added he had in fact felt like a "performing monkey".

Mr Ramsay's wife was also in court listening to the testimony.

In order to make sure he understood what the chef was saying, Chancery Division judge Mr Justice Morgan suggested to him that his complaint was that he was "doing the donkey work".

"You were out there working day in, day out while (Mr Hutcheson) had a cushy number at the office where he was able to abstract personal funds for personal gain," the judge said, in clarification.

"I am not saying this is true, but this is what you are saying."

Mr Ramsay said that was correct. He said the more he had dug into what had happened following Mr Hutcheson's sacking "the worst it got".

The chef first gave evidence last week and described "his shock and horror" at discovering Mr Hutcheson, whom he deeply trusted, had defrauded him and the Ramsay group of companies out "of hundreds of thousands of pounds".

He said the ghost writer machine, or possibly two of them, had been used for some four years by his father-in-law but it was limited to signing books and merchandise and not business documents.

Mr Tager told him that he knew that a ghost writer capable of reproducing his signature had been used to sign documents including the York & Albany rental guarantee.

Mr Tager suggested: "You knew all along about this practice."

Mr Ramsay, now at the head of 28 restaurants and a cookery school, told the judge: "That is not true, my lord."