I almost just typed -- "Chef Sai packed her knives Wednesday night." No Sharon, this isn't Top Chef. Let's start over. OK!

Chef Sai was sent packing on Wednesday night's episode of Around the World in 80 Plates. She wasn't a favorite among her competitors as they often criticized her seemingly big personality, but still, her food was praised by the hosts and diners.

So why did she get sent home? I caught up with Sai to find out.

Ology: Tell me what was going through your head watching yourself on TV.

Sai: You know, watching yourself on TV is always going to be surreal. It’s always fun to see what kind of character you were built in to. It’s frustrating though, because... you know what happened.

Why do you think you went home? Was it strategic or do you really think it was because of a salad?

No no no, it was definitely strategic. It wasn’t because of the salad, which, by the way, if you recall, got stellar reviews from the diners and the hosts and stuff. It was strategic. I even told the producer, I told one of them, they asked me how I felt and I said, "You know what? I’m gonna go home tonight” and this was before we knew who was getting eliminated. And they were like "What?! Why do you think you’re going home?" and I’m like "Come on. I’m the only classically-trained Asian chef and everyone else is Western." Nicole specializes in California Fusion. What the hell is that? I’m the only classically-trained Asian chef and you drop us off in Europe. All of us are like "Oh my god, this thing is going to end in Asia." So right off the bat, when I was on the losing team that night I knew I was going home because it was strategic. If we are going to go toe-to-toe in Asia you don’t want me around. Nor do you want another team to have the upper hand because you have the only Asian chef.

How did Nicole get away with not counting her fish? If she was on Top Chef, the judges definitely would have sent her packing.

Yeah! I don’t know if you recall, but she made a comment like "I don’t do well with people micromanaging me," but it’s because she wasn’t butchering the fish correctly. So all of us noticed and all of us have our own dishes to do. We were trying to keep it together and do what we gotta do, but I always say if I was on a normal cooking show where judges sent chefs home, I would not have gone home last night. There’s no way.

Do you still talk to any of your fellow chefs? Which chef are you not a big fan of?

Jesus, that’s a loaded question. I say that because I’m sure that all of us are good people. There are some people, let me say this, based on what I’ve heard, the people for the most part are correct in who they think is a bitch. But the biggest non-truth I think is that a lot of people are having issues with Nookie right now, just stuff I’ve seen on Twitter or Facebook, stuff like that, he doesn’t have a lot of fans. But Nookie is the biggest bear ever.

What would you have done differently? Is there anything you regret saying on camera?

You would think I would regret saying [the "Who do you think people would rather f*ck"comment]. But at the end of the day it got me a lot of face time. I got on Andy Cohen. And then I actually tweeted Paula Deen and said "You go Paula Deen." It’s just a big joke now. I don't know what I would have done differently, to tell you the truth. Because my platform is "OK, I’m an Asian chef, but I can cook anything."

Who are you rooting for now? Who were your allies?

I do really love all of them. But the people I’ve come to really respect, not only as chefs and the talent that they have, but as really good people would be Chaz, Nick, and believe it or not Cheven. Mr. Cheven has been painted in a funny light too. He’s definitely a character.

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Do you think Sai deserved to go home? Let us know in the comments!

Follow Sharon Tharp on Twitter: @sharontharp

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