It’s been a rollercoaster few years for Philadelphia-born restauranteur Charita Jones.

Her original Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack in Little East Street was saved from the brink of financial disaster after TV chef Gordon Ramsay featured the restaurant on his Channel 4 show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in December 2004.

Then, having turned around its fortunes, the restaurant’s popularity soared to such an extent it was able to move into new, larger premises three doors away in early 2006 under the new moniker Momma Cherri’s Big House.

But on his well-publicised return last December, fiery tempered culinary icon Ramsay berated Charita for slipping standards at the restaurant and ordered her to take back control of her kitchen to stop her soul food becoming “fast food”.

Vowing to heed Ramsay’s warnings, after the programme Charita told The Argus she was “determined to get it right” and said changes had already happened.

And 2007 seems to have started the way the business intends to go on with the arrival of new head chef Tristan Dooley, charged with a major retraining programme in the kitchen to ensure food, presentation and service only get better and better.

But fans need not fear the changes will affect the vibrant, down-home style of cooking they have come to appreciate in dishes such as BJ’s Southern Cornmeal Coated Fried Catfish, Aunt Mae’s Southern-style meatloaf and the famous tapas-style Soul in a Bowl.

■ Treat yourself to Momma Cherri’s Soul in a Bowl cookbook (Absolute Press, £20), out in May.