I am sorry, but I do not agree. It was still his freezer. It was his restaurant. They were his customers. It is his reputation. It is his freezer. I don't care who stocked it, it is still his responsibility. And a bit surprisingly, he seemed to take that responsibility after being called out. It's one thing to be in an isolated environment in which the judges are the only people to be affected by the decisions of the cheftestants (a term that I have grown to loathe). It's another thing to have people who are not judging the chefs. They are judging the restaurant. If I own a restaurant, I am darned well looking at what some random meat company is sticking in my walkin.

As far as his comment, I felt it was inappropriate, but so what. This wasn't an episode of Meek Chef. It's one thing to defer to the experts in your field, but when you're getting lit up for making poor decisions by a restaurant owner who clearly made a poor decision by not doing a kitchen walk-through to ensure that the quality of ingredients being served to your guests is up to your quality standards (even if you leave the execution to the chefs), I do not believe it is completely out of line to stand your ground and defend yourself. At least Spike admitted it was a bad decision and tried to make the best of it rather than just pouring Smucker's Butterscotch Sauce all over them.

And, yes, I deal with more pompous and arrogant (and self righteous) people in my profession every day. In the end, chefs are artists that use a less conventional canvas.