The cheftestants have eight hours to prep, including shopping. Floyd rounds his meal out with oxtail and plans to make a different style of Oseland's dream meal. Floyd thinks it shows guts and courage to do two different preparations. Traci, however, has the same idea when she decides to present both a French-style duck and a Peking duck. Mary Sue encounters problems selecting her lobster and decides to make shrimp instead rather than lose an hour to traffic. As an L.A. native, she understands that it's more effective to get all her food from one place rather than shop around. As such, she is the first person back to the kitchen.

Hours later, Floyd is the last and feels that he is at a disadvantage. He finally arrives back, ultra-stressed that he won't have time to braise his meat properly. Mary Sue, on the other hand, won't be braising any meat for her first course of steak tartare. She explains that it was a classic German dish she had as a child and a highlight of her year. Floyd has no time to consider his happy memories because he's too busy fretting over the shoddy job his butchers did prepping his fish. The fillets are broken with scales all over the place. "I've realized that it's not my day," he says.

Mary Sue says her second course -- now shrimp instead of lobster -- will express her mentor's exuberance with food. Traci explains that her first course is inspired by her Louisianan grandfather. Floyd's is a semolina dish cooked with diced vegetables that he's decided to twist with coconut milk, chicken stock, and roasted mushroom. He considers the dish "ballsy." Traci also stretches with a duo of quail for her second course. As the night wraps up, Floyd is very concerned about his second dish -- a snapper in broth -- because he has lost a lot of time. Mary Sue admits that she hasn't made a soufflé in 30 years. Traci is similarly out of practice with duck and hopes for the best. Fortunately for Mary Sue, her test soufflé turns out well, and Floyd feels the heat yet more.

The next day, the cheftestants are driving away from the kitchen and deep into the Hollywood Hills. They arrive at a house, where Curtis greets them and tells them that, for a change, he is going to cook for them. He pours a couple of glasses of champagne, then prepares a hamachi appetizer followed by sunchoke soup. Traci especially appreciates the moments to take a breath and collect her thoughts.