Gordon's Great Escape

In tonight's first programme, Gordon's odyssey begins in the north, home of our curry house classics. On board an express train he's thrown in at the deep end and experiences a back-to-basics baptism of fire, cooking for its many passengers in the train's cramped pantry car and getting travel sick while he's making curry. In stark contrast he then meets his match working for a cantankerous royal chef, preparing a biryani with a difference for a huge wedding feast before venturing into the jungle where he gets eaten alive by ants when he scales a 40-foot tree in search of the local tribe's favourite delicacy. Then its on to Delhi to cook at the restaurant that invented tandoori chicken, where Gordon puts into practice everything he's learnt for a tough crowd of Delhi food critics.

In tonight's second programme Gordon's got a taste for adventure and 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, once better known for head-hunting than their curries. Then he's off to Assam to enter a housewives' competition to find the best Assamese dish; and finally he sets up shop among the street food stalls of Calcutta to try and tempt the local foodies into buying north-east curry - Ramsay style.

In tonight's final programme Gordon heads south to the coasts of Kerala for the ultimate seafood curry. In Tamil Nadu he hits a meat-free zone and faces his biggest culinary nightmare, living in an ashram where the only food on the menu is vegetarian. Any tranquillity soon evaporates when Gordon tries his highest-octane sport yet - bullock racing - before his final stop in the slums of Mumbai. There he cooks on Slumdog Millionaire streets before putting himself to the ultimate test, cooking alongside one of India's top chefs for a star-studded dinner at the Taj Hotel.