If anyone can handle the loud, brash, no-holds-barred style of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, it just might be Christopher Gardner. Meet the retired Navy submarine cook who hopes to test his mettle on Ramsay’s newest TV show.
THE NEXT
MASTERCHEF? MASTER By Kristina Kolesa
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hristopher Gardner knows about pressure— the kind that comes from working and sweating in cramped kitchen quarters, from having 100 hungry Navy men waiting on you for their next meal, from feeling the weight of an entire ocean pressing in on the massive nuclear submarine you call home. Yes, it’s safe to say that Christopher can handle the heat, and now the cook is hoping his 20 years as a Navy submariner will make him an ideal contestant on MasterChef, a competitive cooking show starring salty British chef Gordon Ramsay. “I think Ramsay would appreciate what the cooks on a submarine have to do,” says Christopher, who traveled to Orlando late last November for an in-person casting call and received a call-back. “It really is a one-man show in that kitchen to feed 100 guys every six hours, cooking every part of the meal.” If all goes according to plan, the 41-yearold will be able to display those unique stress management skills on national television. He says there was never any doubt that he wanted to make his living working in the galley of a U.S. Navy submarine. “I knew since my sophomore year in high school,” says the Long Island, New York, native who moved to Ocala two years ago. “I remember heading to New London, Connecticut, for a wrestling match and seeing the submarines being built at Electric Boat on the Thames River. I was so interested.” Soon thereafter, the 10th-grader secured a tour of the U.S.S. Houston. The father of one of his high school friends was the submarine’s Chief of the Boat
jan’11
ocalastyle.com
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