Mr Rhodes dubbed Ms Smith's current BBC series How To Cook "insulting" and "offensive".

It shows viewers the basics of cooking, with one show concentrating on the finer points of boiling an egg.

Smith said she wanted to re-introduce people to the pleasures of cooking and herald a return to basic skills.

Viewers too sophisticated

Delia Smith: 25 years on screen

But Rhodes - credited with bringing traditional British food back into fashion - thinks viewers are too sophisticated for her back-to-basics approach.

"I don't need to be shown what boiling water looks like and I tend to think that the rest of the population don't need to be shown it now," he said.

"I really don't believe that the majority of people cannot boil an egg. A programmes showing people how to boil water should not be going out at 8:30pm at night and should not be targeted at adults.

"It is insulting to their intelligence."

Attacks celebrity chefs

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He also hit out at the idea of chefs as celebrities - insisting he works hard in his London restaurants for his fame.

He said: "I am a working chef who just happens to appear on television every once in a while.

"I work 15-hour days five days a week in my restaurants, which is more than many other chefs who are labelled 'celebrities' can say.

"The reason I do that isn't for stardom or applause, it is because I love cooking and I love food and any success I have had is down to sheer hard work."

Delia is BBC veteran

Despite his appearances on numerous TV shows and ads for sugar, Rhodes is not the only culinary expert to complain about the influence of celebrity chefs.

Earlier this month Michel Roux said shows like Can't Cook Won't Cook and Ready Steady Cook made him "sick", and he accused them of sacrificing the importance of food in favour of audience-pleasing jokes.

A spokesperson for Delia Smith said she would not be commenting on Rhodes' attack.

She has been with the BBC for 25 years, from Family Fare in 1973 to How To Cook, currently showing on Tuesdays at 2030 GMT on BBC Two.