At the conclusion of this week's Top Chef, Casey Thompson was told her dish was simply "inedible."

A harsh critique, to be sure. Was it deserved? Not according to the All-Star herself. In the following TV Guide interview, Thompson defends her cooking and talks about what went wrong.

On team challenges: What I've come to realize about team challenges is they drum up a lot of drama and it makes it really difficult for us to work together and work alone at the same time. You see the train wreck coming, you just don't know how to prevent it.

On her use of chicken feet: I use chicken feet at the restaurant that I'm at, and the way we use them is to flavor our food... Have I ever cooked them for people in Chinatown? No, never. I was actually hoping for a dish where they would think, "These are damn good chicken feet." I really thought it was going to work out. I really did.

What went wrong with her dish? When I was watching the show, there was a picture of my dish that came up first and another that came up later. And they were totally different. The few chicken feet I tried, I did not think they were inedible. I was deep-frying them, and then they went straight into the wok and then got tossed into the sauce and plated.

Later, I came down and tried one and asked how was it being prepared. No one really knew and there was confusion. I thought the sauce was over-reduced and that was product of "I'm busy doing something over here, and I can't get to that over there."

But there were a lot of things happening and [I] don't blame anybody cooking or plating my dish. And I guess the judges felt they weren't cooked long enough and that would be on me.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.