apocalypsos | I love Lee Anne Wong. Have I mentioned that lately?

So on the last episode of Top Chef there was a little thing called Scallopgate.

For anybody who doesn't watch -- and I'm pretty sure if you clicked on the lj-cut you watch, but whatever -- one of the contestants, Spike, got first pick of proteins that were in the walk-in of the guest judge's restaurant. He picked frozen scallops, which seemed to get a universal, "Bwuh?!" reaction from everybody who saw him take them. And when he got dinged by the guest judge for using scallops even though he knew they were frozen, Spike dug his own grave by saying, "Well, then, they shouldn't have been in your walk-in." Which ... awkward.

Anyway, on the TwoP boards and (I imagine) the Bravo boards as well, everybody's been debating left, right and center for the last four days now about where the frozen scallops could have come from, since the restaurant is supposedly too good to be using scallops that weren't fresh. Some were saying the restaurant's full of it. Some were saying that maybe there was a mix-up when they ordered them. Some were saying that maybe Lee Anne, who was in season one and who's been the show's culinary director since then, pulled a fast one on Spike knowing full well he's the kind of douchebag who'd pick something based on screwing over the other contestants rather than to his own advantage and not think about it until it was too late, since he's done it before.

So everybody's been debating it back and forth, albeit fairly calmly, even to the point where Chef Tom sent an email to Amuse Biatch saying basically, "The restaurant doesn't carry frozen scallops, the culinary director must have put them there." And now Lee Anne finally updated her blog:

The Allen Brothers tie-in to the Elimination Challenge was that they donated a bulk of the proteins for the challenge. Keep in mind, as the culinary producer, it’s my job to keep within my food budget for each episode, and the budget’s never as big as you think it is. I worked with Chef Rick’s corporate chef, Greg Biggers, on making sure the fridge would be stocked with a plentiful variety of proteins and produce for our contestants to work with. However, Tramonto’s was not donating this product -- we had to pay for everything we requested and used. Chef Greg sent me his inventory list with current prices attached and I had to budget out what we could order and what could be donated. While this is not uncommon, I want you to understand why I got the scallops donated, rather than pay for 5 lbs of them. There’s nothing wrong with frozen seafood, but there were no scallops on Rick’s menu at the time, and if there had been, he certainly would not have been using frozen scallops. So all of this hullabaloo at the end of the day is MY fault. I knew the scallops were frozen, and besides the fact that they would be free, they may have been perfectly suitable in other applications, such as a seafood stew or sausage. It still doesn’t excuse the fact that Spike knew this also. He observed the quality of the scallops the minute he opened the bag and he STILL chose to use them. It was bad judgment on his part either way.

So in summation, "Yes, I put them there! They fit into my budget. And Spike was STILL stupid enough to use them."

*hearts her*

Oh, man, please let this reach the reunion show. Pleeeeeeeeeeease.