‘Hell’s Kitchen’: Christina will leave the %#&ing to Ramsay

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Christina would like to take this moment to thank Chef Gordon Ramsay. Not just for selecting her as the winner of ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ but for the mental and emotional abuse he heaped on her head.

‘I learned to tune a lot of it out,’ Christina said during a phone interview this morning. ‘But I realized that I flourish under that kind of pressure ... which sounds kinda creepy.’

And kinda masochistic.

Turns out the threat of displeasing the chef was just what she needed to drive her to victory -- and a $250,000 paycheck as a senior chef at Ramsay’s new restauraunt, The London West Hollywood. Along the way, the culinary student said she learned plenty from Chef Ramsay -- including how to lead a kitchen.

But there is one trait she probably won’t be taking with her to her new job.

That would be the excessive cussin’.

Chef Ramsay, of course, is known for his ability to creatively curse up a blue streak when needed to ‘motivate’ his charges. But the diminutive blond said that she’d probably leave a lot of the foul language behind.

‘It doesn’t sound as good coming out of my mouth,’ she joked.

Some other interview highlights:

-- What did Christina do after winning last October? She went back to finish off her classes at the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Rumors were running rampant among the students there that she’d participated in the show, but Christina said she did her best to keep quiet so as to not ruin the suspense for the audience. The rest of the time? ‘I was hiding. I was organizing, trying to get my life together’ in anticipation of the move out West.

-- When does she start work at London West Hollywood? She doesn’t know. But her big concern right now is finding an apartment in L.A. (So who’s doing the cooking now at London West Hollywood? Times food writer Amy Scattergood tells you here.)

-- She has no regrets about picking the loopy Matt for her team for the final dinner service. In fact, she and Petrozza had discussed in advance how to divide up the players. She sold Petrozza on Jen in part by arguing that Jen would do everything she could to cause Christina’s defeat.

-- What was the key to her victory? Acting like the student she was. Christina said she was ‘pretty shaky’ when she started the competition. But the Missouri woman said she found herself relying upon some lessons learned during a stint spent living in the Carribean. Chiefly, an Island attitude that encouraged her to ‘shut up, stand back, and you’ll learn everything you need to know.’ That approach -- absorbing every tip and taking Ramsay’s criticism to heart and working to eliminate such mistakes the next time around -- worked to her advantage. Also, on the first night in ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ contestants were given a recipe book. While others chatted, hung out and got to know each other, Christina went to her room and started studying.

-- She has a few regrets -- like the many, many tears. But she says that if she hadn’t taken things so personally, and so seriously, she might not have made it through to the end.

-- She never considered trying out for one of the other cooking shows, such as ‘Top Chef’ or ‘Next Food Network Star.’ ‘To be completely honest, I never watched either,’ she said. Instead, she was drawn to the Fox reality show because she watched last season and thought: ‘I could do that. Turns out I was right.’

And a little bit masochistic.

--Rene Lynch