Gordon Ramsay has always promised the winner of the second season of his Hell's Kitchen show an executive chef gig at his restaurant inside the London West Hollywood Hotel, and now that time has come for winner Christina Machamer.
Machamer, a 25-year-old St. Louis native who was still in the midst of finishing Culinary School when she filmed the show, had the least experience of all the contestants. Ramsay, for now, has confidence in Christina's ability to helm the kitchen:
"Christina had the least amount of experience coming in, but I sensed something special," he said. "She had the best potential of any contestant."
We just dined at Gordon Ramsay the other night and were perfectly content with our dishes. Yet maybe Christina will bring some heat into the kitchen when she takes over.
Last night we were able to snag some reservations to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant inside the London West Hollywood.
The restaurant has received some mixed reviews from food blogs and critics alike. But we wanted to experience it firsthand for ourselves. Fortunately, this hotel doesn't suffer from any CUT reservations backlog. We were able to get prime seating at 8pm.
Granted, it was a Monday night but still it's refreshing to have a desired time at a hot restaurant actually accommodated.
The Sunset Marquis -- the West Hollywood hotel with one of our favorite taglines ("if we were any more Hollywood, our pool would be shallow at both ends") -- has just reopened with a fresh new look after its $20 million expansion.
The hotel's reps just emailed us a bunch of pics of the new villas and it looks like the place is indeed even more Hollywood now.
Props to Hotel Maven CourtneyMay for dropping some pics of Villa 11 at the Sunset Marquis into the HotelChatter Flickr Pool.
We love the place enough for the slogan alone ("If we were any more Hollywood, our pool would be shallow at both ends"), but we're totally loving the sleek, modern villa too.
See more of Courtney's Sunset Marquis pics after the jump.
Igniting the hearts of female foodies the world over, David Beckham arrived at the official opening of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at the London West Hollywood last night dressed like . . . a waiter.
When we first caught a glimpse of these photos, we seriously considered forking over the massive amounts of cash and butt kissing it would take to hop a plane and get into the opening (perhaps he'd notice if we strolled in fashionably late), but our dreams were semi-crushed when we learned that Beckham was not, in fact, serving food. Apparently, he was just dressed festively for the occasion.
Inspired idea: someone should open a restaurant that requires all the waiters to wear David Beckham masks. We'd eat there every single night. Yum.
Celeb chef and generally shouty Brit
Gordon Ramsay closed his mouth (for a little bit) and opened his much-anticipated restaurant at the London West Hollywood last week, and the reviews have started to trickle in.
Over on Chowhound, the namesake restaurant's first batch of customers have started to post their own reviews. While the range of feedback seems to run from "meh" all the way to a disappointed diner referring to the restaurant as a "Kitchen Nightmare", the most frequent complaint was about portion size.
Yet a special tipster infiltrated some rooms at the hotel and sent back these pictures.
The full reveal of the new decor, by Benjamin Noriega-Oritz, isn't going to happen until the fall. When we were last there in mid-April, the front of the hotel was still boarded up but the public areas seemed to be ok.
So, what do you think: love it or hate it? We like the orange touches and despite a lot of that "whimsical" decor which makes the room less stark/starcke, it still remains very Mondrian-y. Here's what the rooms used to look like.
Ever since we got the first, first-hand review of the London West Hollywood hotel, we've been chomping at the bit for the Gordon Ramsay restaurant to open. And now the time has come.
The namesake restaurant from the Hell's Kitchen celeb chef will open today.
Eater LA managed to get some snaps of the place and some insidery scoop:
You'll see lots of white marble, rich fabrics, columns, gold accents; views down the hillside at the back of the restaurant. There was a rumor that perhaps the date was pushed back, but we've confirmed that not only will the restaurant open on May 27 for dinner (May 28 for lunch and dinner), but there's much activity in the space as we speak. What isn't confirmed is whether Ramsay himself will be in during the first week, or his Hell's Kitchen protege.
Eater also has a copy of the menu and reservations are being taken now. And since Hell's Kitchen actually hasn't finished filming, we aren't sure who Ramsay's protege will be.
Interestingly, today is also the last day for the hotel's $299 introductory rate so jump on it!
Gordon Ramsay has always promised the winner of the second season of his Hell's Kitchen show an executive chef gig at his restaurant inside the London West Hollywood Hotel, and now that time has come for winner Christina Machamer. 
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by juliana
