Interview: Clara Moore, Around the World in 80 Plates

After her team members voted Clara Moore off the first episode of Bravo’s Around the World in 80 Plates, Moore says she cried, licked her wounds, took a small vacation and learned a big lesson about being vulnerable.

 “I felt terrible,” Moore said. “I couldn’t believe that I let that happen to me.”

But if she has it her way, she’s not done yet. Moore is already petitioning to be put on another season of the show.

“I’m going to do what I can to redeem myself,” she said. “I really feel I was cut down in my youth, my babyhood of TV.”

Moore blames her early elimination on a moment of weakness in front of Steve “Nookie” Postal, Moore’s teammate and the official chef of the Boston Red Sox. When Moore admitted she felt her dish was weak, Postal pounced, shifting focus from his own dish—the worst on his team, according to host and celebrity chef Curtis Stone—to Moore’s.

“I got totally hosed, and I am extremely angry about that part,” Moore said. “To this day, I never noticed that he was playing with me, but he was. So, lesson learned.”

Even when she talks about Postal’s conniving, it’s clear Moore blames herself for her elimination.

“I was fresh meat, and he devoured it up,” she said. “If I had kept my mouth shut and never said a thing, I would have easily slid into the next stage.”

But, Moore said, there are no hard feelings.

“I don’t hold any grudge on that dude,” Moore said. “It’s a game. I’d probably punch him in the arm and then give him a hug and say hey.”

During last night’s main challenge, Moore was tasked with cooking a Bubble & Squeak, a traditional British dish made from the leftover potatoes and cabbage from a roast dinner. Moore’s dish was a more modern take, combining potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, beets and parsnip into a hash with a sprout salad on top.

“My dish was super lackluster,” admits Moore. “It was over-cooked. It wasn’t exciting. But in the scheme of the show, it was one of the better dishes. You are under totally different constraints than when you are home.”

Moore said she’ll still be watching Around the World in 80 Plates, cheering especially for her “bestie” Gary Walker.

“It was so much in such a short amount of time,” she said. “It takes a lot to get out of your element and say, ‘Ya, I’ll do whatever I have to do to be on national TV.'”

For more, check out: