Fan favorite and nice-guy Gary was sadly sent home on the last episode of Around the World in 80 Plates, leaving us with a lot less laughs. After becoming a team captain and preparing fairly well-received dishes, he was ultimately sent packing (much to my surprise) because of his non-traditional Ribollita.

I caught up with Gary following his elimination to get the deets on what went down. Check it out!

Hi Gary! So when you first got Jenna on your team, you were super excited, but I was yelling at the TV because I didn't want you to get over-confident! Do you think that was your downfall?

You know, the funny thing is that I think that we really made good food. The food was well received by the hosts, obviously not by the judges. If you look at the footage, Curtis and Cat and their guests were certainly happy with the food that we made, even the Ribollita that wasn’t a Ribollita, but of course what really counts is not their vote. It’s the locals who really make the decision. At least somebody liked it but it wasn’t the judges whose call it was to make.

Were you happy that were a team captain? I know you and Nick got split up but how did you feel about that?

Oh, I was excited because up until then I was in more of a support role in a lot of the other countries, so I was excited to sort of have a little bit more of a stronger presence in Italy.

What do you think of your castmates, what were your first impressions of them?

I’m a very humble person so I’m always in awe of other chefs, especially ones that are so well-seasoned like a lot of these guys are. Not that I was intimidated, but I was definitely impressed with everyone from the beginning. I’m like the new kid in class from some weird school down the street, that’s kind of like how I felt. Until I got to know them and then I’m lik you know we’re all just equally talented and we’re all here for the same reason and we’re all chosen for the same reason and then we all just became pals.

Did you have any kind of strategy going into the show?

My one strategy was to truly be myself. I knew it was going to be very team challenge oriented. I don’t know if you would call this a strategy because it’s really who I am truly am, I’m a really good team player, so going into this I’m just going to be the best team player that I can and just hope for the best.

I gotta ask -- what it’s like cooking for a sorority?

It’s one of the best jobs a cook could really want because think about it -- you have a teacher’s schedule. You’re only working 31 weeks out of the year, so it’s like you’ve got your whole summer free, you’ve got 4 weeks for Christmas, a week for spring break, it’s Monday through Friday. It was the perfect job. I really loved that job, to be able to travel during the summer and take time off during the holidays, normally for a chef that’s opposite of what we do, we’re always working holidays. With this job I can pick and choose and it’s how I picked up more of my private chef work, because of the breaks in the schedule. It’s an excellent job.

So who are you rooting for now?

That’s a hard one; I love them all dearly. I’m going to remain very diplomatic and say I’m rooting for all of them!

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

Follow Sharon Tharp on Twitter: @sharontharp

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