Andy DehnartHell’s Kitchen 4 concluded with Gordon Ramsay naming Christina Machamer as his executive chef for his new Los Angeles restaurant with a $250,000 pay day. After one final tease, her magical winner door opened, showing that she defeated Louis Petrozza, the experienced yet filthy chef.
Ramsay said that he picked Christina because “she had the best potential across any chef in Hell’s Kitchen, and in my business, I think long-term.” Earlier, Ramsay said the decision was “sheer agony for me,” and told Petrozza and Christina, “clearly, you both have strengths, and without a shadow of a doubt, two very worthy finalists. … I know both of you are going to go on to great success.”
As always, it was kind of an awkward finale, considering how much time and effort the whole season spent on the chefs’ incompetence. It’s always hard for me to see why anyone deserves the prize considering how much we’ve seen them screw up without any real redemption, although Christina came as close as anyone to proving her skills on occasion. But of course, moments later, Ramsay would be screaming at her again. Even though Ramsay sometimes praises his contestants, most of the season is spent throwing stuff at them, verbally and physically, so in the end, it’s hard to see why anyone deserves such a significant prize.
After she won, Christina told her fellow competitors, “If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be here.” Although she probably didn’t mean it this way, she was right: Had they not been such utter fuck-ups, she probably wouldn’t have won. That’s the secret to Hell’s Kitchen: You don’t necessarily have to be super-talented, you just have to suck less than every other mouth-breathing, arrogant asshat moron the casting producers have surrounded you with.