Christina Machamer

Christina Machamer (born March 13, 1982) is an American chef who won the fourth season of Fox Network's reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen. She was awarded the position of "senior sous chef" (not the executive chef position as promised) at Gordon Ramsay's then-new restaurant at The London West Hollywood, where she earned a $250,000 yearly salary.

Early life Machamer, the daughter of Rick and Leasa Machamer, was born and raised in St. Louis and began working in restaurants at age 16. She graduated from Lafayette High School in 2000 and, after some time in college, dropped out of pre-law and decided that cooking was her calling in life. After an apprenticeship with chef Larry Forgione at An American Place, she began her formal training at Forest Park Community College in 2003.

Hell's Kitchen Machamer decided to apply to Hell's Kitchen season 4 after watching season 3. She went to the open audition in Manhattan and was called back for a screen test.

As a culinary student, Machamer was the contestant with the least cooking experience After winning, Machamer had the choice of accepting her $250,000 prize money at once or earning it as a paycheck for working a year at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant.

Together with Cory Lemieux, As of early 2009, Machamer was the executive sous chef at the London West Hollywood restaurant, where she worked nearly 14 hours a day and was also charged with supervising the kitchen's various stations. and both were among those who presented at the 2009 Scottsdale Culinary Festival in Arizona.

After Gordon Ramsay at The London in West Hollywood was sold back to LXR hotels, Machamer traveled to Napa to study wine at CIA Greystone in St. Helena, California. Shortly after, she returned to Los Angeles to be part of the opening team at Bouchon in Beverly Hills for celebrated chef Thomas Keller.

In January 2009, she was featured as a host at the St. Louis Food & Wine Experience.

In 2011, she relocated to the Napa Valley, where she found a new niche, bridging the gap between food and wine at B Cellars in Calistoga, California.

She also appeared in the 11th season of Hell's Kitchen (in 2013) as part of a brigade consisting of past Hell's Kitchen winners in order to compete against the final 5 contestants.

With the winner of Hell's Kitchen season 12, Scott Commings, Machamer briefly appeared in the 16th-season premiere of the show (in 2016) as a guest, during the red team's challenge reward (a dinner with Ramsay). She gave the women several tips about working under pressure in Hell's Kitchen.

As of March 2023, Christina owns her own catering business in the Napa Valley, Clandestine Table.