Forget comfort food and comfortable viewing, January is the time to tackle the real issues. We can save all the nepotistic kitchen love-ins and soft-focus recipe porn for later in the year.

So, Channel 4 has taken four culinary heavyweights, allocated each a mission, wrapped it up in a feisty package - The Great British Food Fight - and will serve it up for two weeks.

The sporty trailers show Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wearing 1970s tracksuits, but those expecting this quartet to slog it out Superstars-style will be disappointed. In fact, the only interaction between the famous four over the fortnight of food scraps is in these trailers. Each celebrity cook has his own programme or mini-series tackling a particular issue (see opposite). The shows build on the success of last year's campaigning special when Jamie and Hugh ruffled feathers in the poultry industry.

For once, as the trailer reminds us, “this isn't about egos”. But, ultimately, the “champ” will be judged by the ratings, and it will be a tough call to choose between these guys.

For good measure, we also have the eco-campaigning Marchioness of Worcester, no less, shaking a stick at the evil bosses of industrial pig farming in Poland in a documentary called Pig Business. Consider it a bonus.

HESTON “THE GEEK” BLUMENTHAL

AGE: 42

MAIN EVENT: Big Chef Takes On Little Chef

CAMPAIGN GOAL: To apply his unique brand of culinary alchemy and catering nous to transform Little Chef restaurants from their current status of unloved “heart attacks on the highway” to snazzy roadside diners serving local, seasonal food. He has a budget of £350,000 and six months to make a difference.

TRACK RECORD: His Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, was voted the best restaurant in the world at the 50 Best Restaurants in the World Awards 2005 and holds three Michelin stars for its slick molecular gastronomy. It's a million miles away from a chain of 180 frayed motorway caffs that he last ate in 20 years ago.

THE OPPOSITION: Stale. Little Chef is a ghostly shadow of its former happy-family frothy-milkshake self. The staff make scrambled eggs in the microwave and serve everything else from the griddle following grease-flecked laminated instructions from the Little Chef Bible. The mega-grill breakfast should be illegal.

THE ODDS: This is traditionally Gordon's territory - muscling in on ailing catering outlets and slapping them into shape - but Heston has a more delicate touch that might just pay off in this uphill task. Just don't expect snails in the porridge.

GORDON “RAGING BULL” RAMSAY

AGE: 42

MAIN EVENT: Ramsay's Great British Nightmare

CAMPAIGN GOAL: In a slight twist on the usual “rescue” format the stellar chef harangues diners into eating out at local restaurants in these cash-straitened times. It's the least interesting premise on paper, but tough-loving Gordon knows how to create gourmet viewing from the simplest ingredients.

TRACK RECORD: The ultra competitive Gordon has a gastromedia empire at his command, and one that is seemingly impervious to the credit crunch. But with celebrity pals and restaurants all over the world he may find himself stretched too thin and out of touch with kitchen-sink drama and ordinary punters.

THE OPPOSITION: Restaurant owners clinging to the wreckage of the bitter economic climate, and the newly impoverished middle classes, of the sort that used to swear by Waitrose but now shop at Lidl then go home to eat.

THE ODDS: Yet to fail. Gordon has salvaged more rotten restaurants than we've had hot dinners (though, not at his restaurant). Still, there's not likely to be a surge in eating out as a result of his campaign.

JAMIE “THE KID” OLIVER

AGE: 33

MAIN EVENT: Jamie Saves Our Bacon

CAMPAIGN GOAL: The great British banger and bacon butty are under threat. As a result of rising grain feed prices, falling pork prices and gristly EU competition many British pig farmers are going bust. The Gourmet Geezer wants to save the farmers' bacon and help consumers make better-informed choices.

TRACK RECORD: Total respect for Jamie's schools campaign and his chain of Fifteen restaurants that help underprivileged kids kickstart a career in the kitchen. His Ministry of Food experiment, though, which tried to get the good folks of Rotherham cooking good food, looked like reality TV dressed up as philanthropy.

THE OPPOSITION: Foreign farmers; mass producers from the EU, who minimise costs, but may have questionable levels of animal welfare compared with British standards. And food labelling that can be more misleading than informative for consumers who want to buy British.

THE ODDS: This is a meatier challenge than mums who eat only takeaways from Styrofoam containers. Jamie's sure to raise awareness of the pig farmers' plight, but he'll need more than cheeky charisma to turn around their livelihoods.

HUGH “THE SQUIRE” FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL

AGE: 44

MAIN EVENT: Chicken, Hugh and Tesco, Too

CAMPAIGN GOAL: In a Supersize Me-style encounter, the animal lover from River Cottage picks up where he left off last year on his free-range chicken crusade and takes on the might of Tesco in an attempt to make it reconsider its animal welfare policy on poultry. The superpower of British supermarkets, however, is no pushover.

TRACK RECORD: Impeccable. Genuinely community spirited and capable of turning the dullest Dorset village fête into the biggest knees-up since Hardy's day. Last year he really rattled the battery cages of factory farmers.

THE OPPOSITION: Steely Goliath - Tesco - is unlikely to bow to the tousle-haired one's ambitions without a fight.

THE ODDS: Hugh is the most capable of the four chefs when it boils down to serious investigative stuff. Were he to succeed this would indeed be a giant-killing to savour.

Nick Wyke is the Times Online Real Food Editor.
The Great British Food Fight starts on Monday with Big Chef Takes On Little Chef, Channel 4, 9pm. For more information visit channel4.com/food

Editor's choice

• The super cool Vampire Weekend
• Streep and Baldwin get complicated
• Guy Ritchie on Sherlock Holmes