Frozen scallops are no laughing matter in the culinary world. On last week's Top Chef, contestant Spike Mendelsohn was sent home after using frozen scallops in the Elimination Challenge. Spike had the poor taste to blame guest judge Rick Tramonto for having the questionable items in his restaurant's walk-in freezer. This defense failed to save Spike, and now all of the parties involved are doing serious damage control. According to Colicchio and Tramonto, the scallops were provided by Top Chef's own supplier and did not come from Tramonto's Steak and Seafood.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Rick Tramonto implied that the show's producers deliberately planted the scallops in the freezer "to see...who would use them or not." Spike was annoyed that the scallops were there at all, and called the situation "trickery at its best" in his exit interview.

Reality contestants often complain about how they're portrayed on TV during reunion shows, but how do they react as they're watching each episode? Bravo's gave two of its reality stars, Top Chef's Spike Mendelsohn and Andrew D'Ambrosi, the chance to be filmed as they watched new episodes of the show. Spike has regular viewing parties at his home, and invites his parents as well as fellow contestant Andrew to attend.

It's interesting to see Andrew and Spike's moment-by-moment responses, since they don't know how they're going to look or sound and don't have time to prepare a defense. The videos show their knee-jerk reactions to their own edited portrayals, judges' criticisms, and past conflicts.

Three of the Bravotv.com videos are available after the jump. They're definitely worth a look if you're a devoted Top Chef fan.