Ramsay pecked by puffin he planned to cook

Reykjavik, Iceland -- Scottish celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay admits he thought he was a "goner" when he fell off a cliff in Iceland while hunting puffins to cook on TV.

Ramsay was treated at his hotel for a leg gash he sustained during the incident on the Westman Islands. He later went to London's Cromwell Hospital where he received three stitches for a puffin bite he sustained on his nose, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

Ramsay reportedly slipped and fell into freezing water as he climbed down a 280-foot drop while filming footage for his show "The F Word."

"I thought I was a goner," he told the British newspaper. "I remember thinking: 'Oh, (expletive.) My boots and my waterproofs were dragging me down. I'm an extremely good swimmer, but I couldn't get to the surface. I was panicking and my lungs were filling with water. When I got to the top after getting my boots off I was dazed and my head was totally numb."

Ramsay's crew threw him a line and pulled him to safety when he failed to surface after about 45 seconds, the Telegraph said.

As for the puffin peck, Ramsay told the newspaper: "I keep saying one of my kids punched me. I'm too embarrassed to say it was a puffin."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.