The owner of a Chinese takeaway restaurant who was allegedly attacked with a cleaver by a disgruntled kitchen worker has been described as a “female Gordon Ramsay” by her former husband, a court has heard.

Michael Wan told police that his former wife Linda Tian liked everything to be perfect in her kitchen and behaved like a female version of the celebrity chef in the TV series Hell’s Kitchen, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

“She’s a person who wants things done properly. It’s like Hell’s Kitchen,”he said.

“If you watch Hell’s Kitchen Gordon Ramsay says ‘I want this. I want that to happen’. She’s got a mouth like Gordon Ramsay but is a woman,” he told police.

Giving evidence on the third day of the trial of Lianjun Sun, who has denied attempting to murder Ms Tian, Mr Wan said his former wife was a very good chef and had a lovely personality.

“All the customers like her cooking. She got on well with everyone,” he said. However, he said she was very strict about the way food was prepared and would nag staff if things weren’t done to her high standards.

On the day of the alleged attack by Sun he had been in his office at the restaurant in Garrick Way, Ipswich, and had heard his former wife nagging Sun about the way he was preparing food.

Mr Wan had gone upstairs to a lounge and at around 3pm heard Miss Tian shouting to him to call the police. He ran downstairs and saw his ex-wife holding her neck and she told him she had been hit.

Mr Wan went to the customer area of the restaurant to call the police and saw Sun standing outside in the back yard.

He saw blood on the kitchen floor and he went outside and told Sun he shouldn’t hit a woman.

He claimed Sun had picked up a chair and as Mr Wan grabbed the chair Sun had allegedly pulled his body warmer over his face and got him to the ground before leaving through a back gate.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Martyn Levett, Mr Wan accepted that in a statement to police he had likened Ms Tian to Gordon Ramsay but denied seeing her throw boiling water at Sun or wave a kitchen knife at her sister during an argument.

The court has heard that although 51-year-old Sun, of Cromer Road, Ipswich, has denied attempting to murder Miss Tian on November 1 last year he has admitted a less serious charge of wounding her with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.

It has been alleged that Sun delivered two “massive” blows to 50-year-old Miss Tian’s neck. One caused an injury measuring 12cm from the midline of her throat to her left ear and the other blow to the back of the neck fractured the top of her spine.

The court heard that the second blow missed fully severing her spinal column by 1mm and that “severe” force would have been required to inflict the two injuries.

The trial continues today.