Top Chef Jennifer: Who Wants to See Her Naked?

Move over, Padma! Last night's eliminated contestant says she'd be up for stripping down, too

Despite how it may have appeared throughout this season's Top Chef, Jennifer Carroll insists she was never more than just good friends with fellow cheftestants, brothers Michael and Bryan Voltaggio.

"Nothing happened with any of us," Carroll told me earlier today with a very big laugh. "I like how they kept showing little looks of me looking at them. It's a joke."

In fact, Carroll says she's just as close to Kevin Gillespie. "They don't show anything of me looking at Kevin that way," she said. "It's like, 'Why not? There's nothing wrong with Kevin.' I guess they wanted to make something of the blond girl and the two good-looking brothers. Maybe America wanted us to get together, but it didn't happen."

That's not all I have for you from Carroll. Read on to find out what she has to say about packing her knives and going home, cracking under pressure and why we may see her posing in the buff for a magazine someday…

You were eliminated because your dish was too salty. Did you ever think that salt was what would do you in?
No. I never thought it would be salt that would have me saying good-bye to everybody.

But the thing about last night is, all your dishes were great, so the judges really had to get down to the nitty-gritty.
I'm really proud of myself. I think I did it really well throughout the whole season. I stayed true to myself and my style. I never said anything about any of the other contestants. I always helped anybody when I had the chance.

They really played up you sort of almost having meltdowns because of all the pressure. Was that true or did they just make it look that dramatic?
I think they definitely made it more dramatic for television, but I am extremely hard on myself. To me, a little mistake is a big mistake…I'm not upset anymore. When I was eliminated, it was really rough on me. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to make it into the final three. That was definitely hard for me.

Michael is so friggin' cocky. Last night he was at his worst—or best, depending on how you look at it.
Michael is very confident with himself [laughs]. But he's also a really nice guy. They didn't show that much. Just like they showed me under pressure a lot, they showed Michael's cocky side a lot. It's a lot of editing.

Have you seen Padma's naked cover of Page Six magazine? Would you ever do something like that?
Yeah, I would do that. But I guess I have to get pregnant first—it may be a while.