You can see it right? The Top Chef producers have set viewers up for a battle of the sexes.

During last week’s show, the producers broke up the lovable lesbian couple Jennifer and Zoi (Zofer tees coming soon!), and concluded with a fight scene that would’ve made Soprano’s producers proud. Spike, who earlier in the episode remarked “unless you are going to take two women and strangle them, there comes a time when you gotta just go with it and do the best you can,”threw down with Antonia because he let her bully him out of cooking butternut squash soup for the challenge. Uh, problem with women there, Spike? (HT to Slashfood for the quote). Dale showed Lisa what a man he was by doing his best rap star crotch grab while screaming at her for being such a sourpuss. And Jennifer out-manned everyone by kicking over a chair and facing off against all the other cheftestants with an impressive “don’t f*&# with me” stand and deliver pose. Whew.

Speaking of cussing, there has been some controversy about all the bleeping on chef shows like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen lately. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me, but it does seem as if the producers of Top Chef have upped the bleeping anti for effects sake. I can’t believe that this season’s cheftestants are that much more profane than those in the past.

This week, producers allowed Dale charm his way back into our hearts by apologizing to Lisa for acting like an ass, and then acting like a kid in a candy store when he met legendary Chicago Bears Gayle Sayers and William “The Refrigerator” Perry. Lisa kept being a sourpuss and (incorrectly) forecasting her own wins. And what happened to Kiwi Mark? He seemed sort of depressed on the day of the challenge–only to become truly depressed when told to “clean up his act” by head judge Tom Colicchio (who also appeals to bears). For some reason, I can’t stand to see a sad Kiwi. As a nation, New Zealanders are usually so upbeat.

Cheftestant Stephanie continued on in her “steady wins the race” way, and if rumor-mongering Pete Wells is correct, perhaps a female chef will win the whole she-bang?

Ryan, who served tailgating Bears fans poached pears with creme fraiche (!) was logically sent home.