Gordon Ramsay declares he's going vegan

He's notorious for his love of meat, fish and cheese but now Gordon Ramsay says he will try being vegan - for one night only at least.

The renowned British multi Michelin-starred chef, 51, cheekily baited his meat-loving followers by posting a picture of a vegan pizza on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

View this post on Instagram

Going to give this vegan thing a try ... Yes guys you heard that right. Gx

A post shared by Gordon Ramsay (@gordongram) on Apr 16, 2018 at 11:07am PDT

He wrote underneath: "Going to give this vegan thing a try... Yes guys you heard that right."

The Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and F Word star, who divides his time between LA and London, has been loudly critical of veganism over the years - which is why many of his followers were shocked that Ramsay is now eating plant-based food by choice.

Ramsay is not believed to be converting to a vegan lifestyle as signature dishes at his restaurants around the world such as Petrus and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, both in London, often feature meat, fish and other animal products such as eggs and cheese.

It is more likely that the snap was to promote his new pizza restaurant Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza, which opens on Tuesday in central London and has the vegan pizza Ramsay photographed for his social media on its menu.

Ramsay's vegan pizza was topped with a tomato base, pesto, pine nuts and charred aubergines.

There was no vegan substitute for cheese.

In February, he tweeted an anti-vegan joke, writing: "I'm a member of PETA - People Eating Tasting Animals".

The tweet was in response to a Twitter user who wanted to know what the chef thought of his vegan lasagne, and made fun of the radical animal rights organisation PETA, which actually stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Vegans on the sub-Reddit r/vegan were thrilled Ramsay was promoting vegan food on his Instagram and Twitter feeds.

However some couldn't quite believe the famous meat-lover was being serious about 'trying' a vegan lifestyle.

One asked: "Is there a UK April Fool's Day I don't know about?"