Infamous British chef Marco Pierre White comes to America to host NBC's "The Chopping Block"

Marco Pierre White, christened by the British press the enfant terrible of haute cuisine, is coming to an American television near you — but not to shout, not to swear and definitely not to throw dishes at his chefs. He's mellowed, we're told. Grown up.

Still, we wonder.

White, 47, the uncombed kitchen maven, debuts tonight as star of NBC's "The Chopping Block," a cooking competition in which pairs of contestants — hubbies, wives, siblings and BFFs — duke it out for their own Manhattan restaurant.

Long before chefs crowded America's airwaves with their Yum-Os!, Bams! and (Bleeps!), White was the original celebrity chef in England — the culinary master and monster who transformed British cuisine and earned the eternal reverence of aspiring chefs everywhere.

"He'll just terrify the living [bleep] out of you, just by looking at him," says Anthony Bourdain, the chef-host of the Travel Channel's "No Reservations."

Our drama-loving American hearts are aflutter. But we confess, it's another claim to fame that makes us rub our palms together: White is The Man Who Made Gordon Ramsay Cry, according to White's book "The Devil in the Kitchen" and London newspapers.

Ramsay is the browbeater on Fox's reality series "Hell's Kitchen," unleashing torrents of F-bombs on his fragile flock of quivering culinary contestants.

White prefers not to talk about his bad old days, the very roots of his fame. He's coming to America, he says, to share his expertise. "I have a duty to my industry to show how a professional kitchen is run," he says. "I didn't like the way certain people portrayed my industry."

But stay those fluttering hearts, America. Despite the tension-building opening segments and ads, early episodes of the show reveal a host who's almost kindly, less Gordon Ramsay and more Dr. Phil. "I'm here to guide you. I'm here to assist you," White tells his wide-eyed contestants. "If you fail, I fail."