The sweet e-mail, featuring a wagging dog, read: “I read your May 20 article on 20 Reasons to Love Gordon Ramsay,” wrote Suzy Machamer of Brooksville.. “We have another reason. Our granddaughter is one of this season’s last three finalists, the culinary student Christina.”

That would be Christina Machamer, the culinary school graduate from St. Louis who on Tuesday night made it to the finals next week against competitor Petrozza for the chance to win the grand prize on “Hell’s Kitchen” cooking series on Fox. Machamer spent a few days last week relaxing at her grandparents’ home. (She couldn’t divulge if she ultimately wins the competition.)

I got a chance to speak with the 26-year-old contestant on Friday (before last night’s show aired). She said that the experience had been gruelling but that she had learned a lot. Especially from Ramsay and how he put together his cooking station so that everything was within reach to minimize wasteful movement.

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I understand you have grandparents in Brooksville?

I do, yes. Bob and Suzy Machamer.

I think everyone has grandparents in Brooksville, if I’m not mistaken.

Oh gosh.

You were just here last week, correct?

I was, yes, for about four days.

Did you eat anyplace good?

We went to Mykonos in Tarpon Springs.

Ooh, I love that place.

It’s great. Aside from that, the two of them had me cooking the entire time.

What did you have at Mykonos?

I had the year. You know, they try and talk you out of that, but it’s great.

It’s hard to forsake the basics.

Right.

Now, at this stage of the show, tell me what you’re experiencing as a cheftestant or contestant, or however you want to put it, that you hadn’t expected to experience?

I think the most unexpected is the amount of growth that I’m experiencing. You know, we’re not allowed to bring our own personal recipes. So when you’re not held down by those sorts of parameters your mind sort of goes in all sorts of directions. It’s amazing to me because I didn’t know I was able to produce so much just off the top of my head. [laughs] Growth is what I think I’m experiencing at this point.

A little more sense of improvising in a kitchen under pressure?

Yes, exactly. You know, even the challenges where we had to come up with our own menu, coming up with a crème brulee method off the top of your head is very interesting.

Did you had a strategy going into all this?

Not really, and everyone asks that question, “What was your strategy?” I really had no idea what to expect, so not knowing that, it was hard for me to form any sort of strategy. I just went along with the flow. When we had certain chefs in the kitchen with stronger personalities, I backed down. As those personalities would leave, I’d build myself back up.

You’d just wait for your opportunities.

Right. It’s hard because there’s an ebb and flow not only with the contestants but also with the chef and then with running a dinner service. No strategy really works.
Is there anything from culinary school you used the most during this experience?

Maybe the basics was what I used the most. There are several times when you have to do souffles, hollandaise, make sauces, make stocks during the halibut challenge. The basics have been drilled into my head. That’s really what I used the most. They don’t really let you do your own thing.

You know, every season I keep waiting for someone to get the clue about teamwork. It’s a rare moment when it happens. Do you feel like you guys have gelled in any one of the episodes this year? It seems very disjointed at times.

It’s definitely disjointed. I think a great example would be Corey and I. We hated each other at the beginning of the season. We’ve now found our common ground in and out of the kitchen, but no matter how we feel about each other in the dorms, we work amazingly together in the kitchen. Now that it’s down to the final three – Corey, Petrozza and I - there’s an amazing sense of teamwork because all three of us work well together in and out of the kitchen.

Is there a respect there that you hadn’t expected?

There’s definitely a respect there. Both of my competitors are amazingly competitive and great people in and out of the kitchen. Very interesting. Definitely. There is a lot of respect there.

Did you peg either of those two as threats going in?

No. Actually, on Day 1, I thought Ben and Shayna were the people to beat, just by looking at them – you know, before Signature Dishes, of course. It’s amazing how first perceptions are not always correct.

What did you think of the Ramsay disguise on the bench thing?

Well, I was sitting down the bench from him, so I couldn’t really see him, but he looked really scary. He had all this dark, stringy hair and a lumberjack shirt. And he’s 6-foot-5. I was, like, “Oh God, and I have to live with this guy?”

It was odd, but it was a cool way to start the series because it put everyone on edge.

Oh, definitely. It definitely put people on edge. I was glad I stayed mum on the bus.

How do people adjust to the yelling and the shouting and the obscenities? How do you cope with it? At a certain point, does it just start to bounce off?

You know, it’s hard at first and it really starts to get under your skin, but you have to tune it out. I have a little brother, so I’m used to tuning people out. Towards the end, people would say, “Oh, did you hear Ramsay call you a miserable cow?” And I was, like, no, all I heard was, “Salmon, now.” I didn’t hear, “Salmon, now, you miserable cow.”
You tune it out, you keep your head down and keep cooking. Even when Ramsay is yelling at you, he’s, like, “Don’t stop!” I’m, like, “Okay…”

I tell people that I think calling someone a donkey is one of the best non-curse epithets you can yell at someone. “You’re such a donkey!”

Or “Donut!”

Or donut.

I don’t know where he comes up with this stuff. Seriously.