TWO years ago, top chef John Burton Race left the rat race of running a Michelin-starred London restaurant and escaped to rural France to rediscover the joys of cooking and spend more time with his family.

His experiences were recorded in his first TV series, French Leave, which saw him uprooting his family - glamorous wife Kim and six children - from their city life to a remote farmhouse in southern France.

At times it proved a recipe for disaster, as Kim and the children struggled to adapt to life in a different culture with a different language and different food.

But now the wanderer has returned and jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, opening The New Angel restaurant in Dartmouth, Devon - and he admits that some of the old familiar stresses of the rat race have returned. ''I came straight back and joined the rest of the hamsters,'' he laughs. ''Even though it's a much simpler place than I've run before, you've still got to give it everything.''

He's doing 12-hour days, most of which are spent in the kitchen, and his progress is charted in a new TV series, Return of the Chef.

Much of the entertainment value comes from the explosive relationship he has with his wife, Kim, who, he says, can spend money like water. They are both passionate, strong-willed personalities, so one wonders if it was a good idea to make her his business partner. ''It's not all rosy and we do have great big mummy and daddy arguments, usually because of expenditure,'' says the 46-year-old.

He's concentrating on the food, while Kim is in charge of the decor and is also developing the first floor into a cookery school. ''She had a budget and blew that apart in the first two days,'' he blusters. Despite their spats, they seem pretty solid as a couple. They met in 1995 and both left partners to be together. Kim had four daughters, which John thinks of as his own. They went on to have two more children and John also has two children from his previous marriage.

John and Kim are like chalk and cheese on TV, yet the volatile partnership works. ''It's because she's a poser and a show-off and likes the good things in life and I'm the country bumpkin she's tried to smarten up,'' he smiles.

''I've got a lot of ambition and drive but she's got a lot of ambition and drive in a different way. On the surface we are complete opposites, but there are so many similarities.''

There aren't enough swanky shops to keep Kim amused where they live now, in an old farmhouse near Kingsbridge, south Devon, he admits.

''She'll drive to Saltash, three quarters of an hour away, to go to Waitrose, because we only have Somerfield here.''

Appearing on TV means that John has become a celebrity, but you won't catch him doing a Gordon Ramsay, screaming expletives at his staff for all to hear. ''I know Gordon very well. I wouldn't have minded having a go at Hell's Kitchen to show people that there is a different approach to the job. It would have been far better to choose something less complicated as far as the food was concerned and devote more time to showing as opposed to shouting.

''I've done the Gordon Ramsay approach when I was 20-odd, but as you get older you either drop down dead or you change your approach.''

French Leave made him a recognisable face on the street and he's been accused by various members of the public of being a tyrant to his children for taking them abroad. You do get the impression it was family pressure which brought him back.

''France changed my life and it brought the family together a lot more, but actually we've all got to go out and earn a living. My ambition is to have my own vineyard in France,'' he says.

Being under the glare of TV cameras for both series has become easier, even though some of his family spats were embarrassing, he reflects. ''The reality is that in a family you are always going to have somebody ill, somebody sulking and somebody rowing. I really don't mind. Sometimes it looks like chaos but it's bound to be when you've got so many kids and so many conflicting age groups and characters.

''I wouldn't like to be portrayed as the cookery Osbournes but I don't think there's anything too sinister about watching my teenage girls show off because lots of people can relate to that.''

In French Leave, John was seen doing virtually all the cooking at home. But now he does a lot less, he reflects.

''Invariably I cook Sunday lunch and I often cook supper, although Kim's getting a bit more into cooking herself. But it's much easier to bundle the kids in the car and bring them to the restaurant.''

Some processed foods have slipped back into the family kitchen since their return, but he endeavours to clear the fridge of liquid yoghurts and cheesy sticks when he can. France changed their palates, he enthuses.

''When they had their first McDonald's in England when we got back, they didn't like it. They said it tasted synthetic. Kim bought some pre-washed, pre-packed lettuce and they all left it, saying it smelled of chemicals."

More TV may be on the cards although John admits that watching himself on telly makes him cringe.

''I cringe at the way I have this split personality. I come home and I'm dad and it looks like Mr Ordinary has just walked through the door. Then I put this white jacket on and go into the kitchen and I look like a dictator. But actually, that's me.''

l Coming Home by John Burton Race (Ebury, £20); Return of the Chef is on Channel 4 on Fridays