Elia Aboumrad Does Not Go Quietly into the Night

Elia Aboumrad, bitter from being eliminated on Top Chef All-Stars, had some really harsh things to say about judge Tom Colicchio in an exit interview: "Fame gets to your head and makes it grow, very sadly... He has become someone who is not all about the food anymore. He's not all about supporting farmers markets. He's all about high-fructose corn syrup and there's only corn-fed beef on all of his menus now."

Colicchio responded at length, here's just a sampling: "I buy more produce from farmers markets than Elia has seen in her life in the course of a month." "You know, this is a game. It's a TV show.... someone has to lose and she made the worst dish so she went home... What that has to do with me and what I'm supporting and doing being a 'money-making machine' ... she should focus on making better food."

Also he's totally cool with doing commercials for Diet Coke because it doesn't have any high-fructose corn syrup in it. In fact he drinks it and sells it in all of his restaurants. So there.

This is going to make for an uncomfortable reunion episode! And it's only episode one.

· Top Chef Exit Interview: Elia blasts Tom Colicchio [Tribune]
· All Top Chef Coverage on Eater [-E-]