Recap Roundup - Top Chef Seattle Episode 12

A Just Recompense on warming the fish: "Josie gives a mini-lecture about the dangers of touching fish while making sushi since it warms the temperature. I don’t know if that’s a real thing or not – maybe that’s what Katsuya was talking about when he warned them not to touch too much – but I don’t feel like being lectured by Josie about anything. That’s what happens, producers, when you keep someone on past their prime. You teed her up for us, so I’m gonna take the swing. She’s making New England clam chowder. Hey, that’s what she said, it’s inspired by clam chowder,with bacon and yuzu vinaigrette. Halibut, bacon, yuzu, what kind of clam chowder is this? 'I love sushi, I’ve gone so far as to have sushi parties where we served sushi on naked women.' Talk about warming the fish."

Minxeats on blotto: "The cheffy guests arrive and sit themselves at a long table in the back yard. Padma is already stoned out of her gourd. She calls Tom, 'Tommy,' and suggests that Emeril and Wolfie are a 'power couple,' just because one of them pulled the chair out for the other. The wine is flowing pretty freely through the whole dinner, as this is the Terlato wine challenge. The lucky winner of the fried chicken battle gets a year's worth of Terlato wines. That's 365 bottles, according to Padma. Maybe she can drink that much wine in a month year, but 12 bottles would probably be sufficient for me."

Grub Street on product placement: "The judges have said 'fried chicken' at least 200 times this episode, by the way. I wonder if Healthy Choice is offended? Or perhaps this is all a way of ramping up to the introduction of Healthy Choice Fried-Chicken-Flavored Yogurt with Real Bones in the Bottom?"

Hit Fix on bacon everywhere: "Snidely Josh doesn't know a lot about sushi, as he doesn't crave it the way he craves bacon. So, he's making sushi with bacon. Stefan thinks he would have his fingers cut off in Tokyo. But Stefan is having chef's block."

Eater on foreign languages: "Everyone is very confident in their fried chicken recipes, in a way that all Italians swear by their own family's meatballs. Josie says to Stefan, 'How do you say "kiss my ass" in German?" He tells her, and she repeats it. He says, 'You just said, "I'm going home next."' Josie, don't you know that anything you say in German comes true?"

Mary Alice from Charm City Cakes for the Baltimore Sun on chicken: "Jon admonishes Josie for pitching her dish as 'Southern Style' when it's served on a banana leaf. Jon says in the South she would have been run out of town for such behavior. Michelle Bernstein, who was guest judge the last time Josie was sent home, couldn't bring herself to continue eating Josie's chicken: 'I had to put it down. I just ... I can't.'"

Allie is Wired on bullshit: "They move on to Stefan who defends that he doesn’t have a degree in Fried Chicken 101 because he didn’t grow up in America. Tom immediately points out that Wolfgang grew up in Austria and doesn’t have a problem whipping up a batch. Stefan then jumps to the defense that he wanted to put a twist on the concept. Padma isn’t buying it and asks how Chicken Cordon Bleu is a twist. He shuts up at that point as Padma notes he is a 'such a bullshitter.'" Posted on AllTopChef.com