Perhaps the biggest shock during last night's Around the World in 80 Plates finale wasn't the crowning of Avery as the winner, but it was the fact that she got to choose who she wanted to compete against in the final challenge. Despite having a long-standing alliance with Nookie, she chose to go head-to-head against Liz, sending home the executive chef of the Boston Red Sox (and arguably the biggest personality on the show).
I caught up with Nookie to talk about his hasty elimination, Avery and more. Check it out!
OLOGY: You told Liz that you thought it was going to be a three-person finale. What was going through your mind when they said Avery had to send someone home after "The Course"?
Nookie: We went up there for the elimination and they were saying something's going on, and I was like, "Oh my god, how did I miss this?"
At this point, was your alliance a final 2 deal or a final 3 deal?
It was a final 3 deal.
So you knew Avery wasn't going to pick you.
I have no one to blame but myself. Certainly, Avery made the right decision. She made the exact same decision I would have made. You know, I think on the show they said something about our integrity, and that was bullshit. I think everyone knows that was total bullshit. She wanted to pick someone who she thought she could beat, and that was Liz. She didn't pick me, which is fine. It's the same exact thing I would have done.
Yeah I was kind of surprised by that reasonsing.
It's like, Avery and I—we have a great relationship and we still are friends, and we still talk all the time because I think that we have a lot of similarities. In the end, we're going to make the same decisions, but throughout the show, Avery's like "I want to go against the best." For me, it's like "Why would you want to do that?" This thing is about winning 150,000 bucks. It's not going against the best. In the end, she realized that, and she made the right decision, but it didn't really show that much. She said that like 100 times during the show—she wanted to go against the best, but she clearly wasn't. Liz was great, but she doesn't have any experience.
So you definitely think she played it safe.
Well, she did right? Wouldn't you? There's 150,000 bucks on the line, and a new car. Do you want to go against me? Or do you want to go against Liz? I'd go against Liz, too. And Liz almost pulled it out; Avery had a bad day. Avery had that bad day against Liz, and almost lost, so she did make the right call.
They were pretty critical of your dish, saying it was a little too simple. But "The Course" is never really about how great your dish is. It always ends up being about who's the faster runner or who can sell the most whatever. If you knew that it had to do with the quality of your food, would that have changed anything?
I can't defend the dish. The dish wasn't very good. You know, I wish—I can't tell you how many times, like 6 months it's been now, that I've gone over it. And I dropped the ball on that dish, and I should have done better. And I didn't. That's why I didn't win.
What was your favorite moment of the whole experience?
I loved Thailand. Thailand was totally awesome. That was such a great experience, such a cool place. I just loved everything about it. I mean, "The Course" was brutal, but everything else about it was just so awesome.
They used a lot of your commentary throughout the whole season. Did you regret anything you said or are you embarrassed by anything you said?
You know what? It's Bravo, not TBS. They used a lot of what I said because I have a lot to say. Sometimes, you know, there was some crazy editing and whatnot, but overall, I really have no problem with it. A lot of people love me, and a lot of people didn't like me, and I almost like the people who don't like me, more. You get the tweets that are like "You're such a fat tub of lard, I hate you." And I'm like "Thank you so much!" I love that. I don't know, it's like, some of the blogs bash me, and that's funny, but I don't take it personally. These people don't know me. At the end of the day, I go home to my wife and my two kids. It doesn't bother me, it makes me laugh because I'm mean to other people too, and if you can't take it, don't dish it out.
You had to eliminate a couple of people who you didn't think deserved being eliminated at that point in the show. Which elimination, other than yours, was the worst for you?
The first one really sucked, but it was either me or Clara. I wasn't going home. That one was tough, and then Nick—Nick really didn't deserve to go home, but Avery and I had a little thing and we had our deal, and Nicole had immunity, so that left Nick.
So eliminating Nick was hard than eliminating John?
Yeah, at that point, it was John's time to go. But I love John, I got nothing bad to say about him. He's a great guy. He has a good future ahead of him, and I wish I was where he is at his age.
Do people recognize you now when you're just walking around Boston?
At the ballpark, I get it a lot, and when I was in New York last week, a lot of people were stopping me on the street and stuff. That stuff gets old though.
Would you do it again? Would you do Top Chef or another competition like that?
You know, I had a great time doing it, and I think I'd totally be interested in doing something else. It's been a lot of fun, and I think my personality was good for TV. I think whether people liked me or hated me, they liked watching me. Yeah, I would be open for another challenge. I was talking to my wife last night and I was like, I'd really actually be interested in going on Top Chef just because people aren't like "You're cooking this dish." This isn't a cooking competition. People who watch Top Chef, watch the show and a lot of people didn't like it because it wasn't Top Chef. But Top Chef is a cooking show, this clearly is not a cooking show.
I'm a huge Top Chef fan, and that was the first thing I realized about this show. It's more about friendships, who you vote off and strategy, as opposed to actual cooking.
A lot of people were kind of getting a little grief for that, but it's like "Don't blame me, I didn't set up the rules." I'm just playing the game. So I think it would interesting to go on Top Chef and see how I do, because I know I can cook and I know I've got—it would be nice to go into a true cooking competition and see where it is because I think I'd do really well.
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