If you watch Hell's Kitchen, you already know that Christina Machamer overcame exceptional odds to win of the fourth season of the notorious show, becoming the executive sous chef at at the London West Hollywood Hotel. Check in each week as Christina "dishes up" her insights on Hell's Kitchen's fifth season, her notorious new boss, and life after reality TV stardom.

By Christina Machamer

This week it was the “king” of all challenges, where the contestants all had to take the same ingredient, king crab, and turn it into “something extraordinary.”  I thought this was an interesting twist to a familiar challenge.  Each season, it seems, we have a challenge where the contestants are asked to take something average and elevate it to a fine dining level.  In season three there was the “mother” of all challenges, when Gordon’s mum herself made an appearance cooking some of Gordon’s favorite provincial dishes.  The contestants, Rock, Bonnie, and Jen, were charged with turning simple homestyle dishes such as mac n’ cheese into more elegant dishes.  In my season it was the pizza challenge, where Chef Ramsay showed us his white truffle pizza (selling for more than $200 USD), and asked us to make a similar pizza transformation.  So really, this challenge is nothing new. 

The element that separated this challenge from the others was that each contestant was using the same base protein, king crab.  This puts everyone on an even playing field, and allows them to show their individual flair.  For this challenge each chef was asked to make one dish.  Then the team as a whole was to come together to make their decision as to which dish was the best.  The winning dish from each team went head to head to be judged by Chef Ramsay.

The first two “winning” dishes were presented by what could amount to the two most vocal contestants in Hell’s Kitchen, Ben and Andrea.  Both are confident in their skills, and eager to emerge as the future winner.  The problem is that both are so enthusiastic about their strength in the kitchen that the other voices of their team often get drowned out.  And so it was, that while Chef Ramsay found Andrea’s dish to contain too much (crab shell) he also found Ben’s dish to be lacking (well, anything really) and sent both hopefuls back in line. 

Next up were Paula and Danny.  This, to me, was a very interesting match up.  Both contestants are from Florida, so it would be safe to assume that they would be more skilled in handling seafood than someone from, say, St. Louis, Missouri.  Both dishes were more visually appealing than their predecessors.  Paula, whose dish was breathtaking, had a ring of crab surrounded by a coconut broth, while Danny paired his protein with a Madeira beurre blanc.  Even though Ben recounted his life story along with the preparation of his dish, it seems that there was a good deal more thought put into what Danny and Paula presented.  With this second round, Gordon seemed pleased, and I was confused. Not, of course, about his decision in the challenge, but about what in this scene looked so familiar.  So sure, I was in their shoes last year, and maybe I am just reliving my own memories, but maybe not.  I grabbed the remote, and flipped back to the previous week’s challenges, to see if my inkling had any validity.  Here’s what I found:

This is the second challenge where Paula was matched against Danny and Ben was matched against Andrea.  It makes me wonder if this is indicative of anything.  Could this be a preview of our finalists?  Ben vs. Andrea or Danny vs. Paula?  Maybe I am reading too much into it, we’ll have to wait to see. 

Next week, we enter into the final six.  This is where the competition gets very interesting, as the teams unite, and each chef competes as their own entity.  We already know that whatever the challenge, Ben will use asparagus, but what will the other chefs bring?  With only two members of the original red team left, is it safe to say that it will be a male chef leaving?  And what did Chef Ramsay mean when he said in the preview, “BOTH of you take your jackets off?”  So, while I sit in my sommelier test, dreaming of the challenges the black team will face, eat well and be well.

After graduating at the top of her class from The Culinary Institute of America and putting in decades of work in some of the country's top kitchens, Christina Machamer's hard work has been rewarded with a Hell's Kitchen triumph. Now settled into her new West Hollywood digs, she and her partner Cory Lemieux venture into the artisan spice trade with their online company bcbcblends.com. Look for Christina, as she travels the country, seeking out food shows, farmer's markets, and a possible location for her next culinary adventure.

Read more by Christina:
Hell's Kitchen Insider: Good Riddance to the Anti-Cooks
Hell's Kitchen Insider: Final Four Predictions
Hell's Kitchen Insider: A Bar Mitzvah To Remember
Hell's Kitchen Insider: V-C-I-T-O-R-Y?
Hell's Kitchen Insider: The Pressure Cooker
Hell's Kitchen Insider: Another One Gigabytes the Dust!
Hell's Kitchen Insider: Chef Ramsay Loves a Fighter
Hell's Kitchen Insider: First Impression