MAY 2 0 1 7 I BOROMAG.COM 19 “I learned not to be afraid, to go with the flow and not be shy,” she said during a recent interview at the charming Astoria bistro that has drawn rave reviews from critics. “He is nothing like the character you see on TV. He is a great craftsman. He is classically trained. You have to respect a person of his caliber. He didn’t just come out of the sky.” And she added: “He’s very sexy.” Charalambous, who was born in Cyprus and grew up in Melbourne, Australia, spent three years under Ramsay’s tutelage after winning first prize in a reality TV show Ramsay was filming there called “Gordon Ramsay’s Personal Nightmare” about opening up a restaurant in a casino. She failed the first time she tried to get on the show. “I think I spelled my name wrong because I was so nervous,” said Charalambous, now an Astoria resident and the executive chef at mussels ‘N sausages. “I think 300,000 people showed up the first time in this big auditorium. I went home and I was devastated.” Eat this Plate Ramsay didn’t find anyone on the first go round, so Charalambous tried again. And this time, not only did she spell her name right, she blew Ramsay away with her talent. “It wasn’t scripted at all,” she said. “We were free to do anything. It was like four or five stages. I was always praying I wasn’t in the first group so I could go home and do my homework.” She made it all the way to the finale and it was just her and four others — all men. The idea was to make food so good that he’d want to “eat the plate,” she said. COOK Charalambous with Nelson Rafael Giron, an investor in the restaurant
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