The teams (Quickfire winner/loser) and their recipes:

Richard/Andrew: crab cakes (interesting -- Andrew's ready to battle)
Mark/Stephanie: duck a la orange [sic]
Jennifer/Nikki: lasagna
Antonia/Nimma: shrimp scampi
Spike/Lisa: eggs Benedict
Dale Manuel: steak au poivre
Ryan/Valerie: chicken piccata
Erik/Zoi: souffle (Erik was right, and Zoi's bummed too -- sucks for y'all)

Shopping spree at Whole Foods! Far as these ears can tell, Padma never mentioned a budget, which is dandy since at Whole Foods a lot buys a little (but what a lovely little it is). People run, point, demand. Dale, dismissing steak au poivre as "something I would never order," promises to "flip the dish the way that I wanted to flip it." Work it and slap it and bite it while you're at, baby.

Breakfast lover and oft-eggpoacher Lisa's not worried about eggs Benedict, which, if you know how to poach an egg, is hard to really fuck up. As, if you know how to cook chicken, is chicken piccata, so it's a bit surprising when child prodigy Ryan goes for bread crumbs and tomatoes. He's lost his notepad, but ain't no notepad that can help you now. Zoi makes the smart choice to serve a sweet soufflé after all of the savory dishes -- the judges are usually more forgiving with dessert. Andrew comes off as overconfident and insecure as he rags on Richard's hair (because what kind of loser would do that?) and choice of crab.

After the barest pretense of paying for the food, it's back to the kitchen, where the cooking frenzy erupts. Richard's sautéing a tangle of crab parts, and explains his cakes will be accompanied by a play on cole slaw, a cider reduction, and a smoked mayonnaise. Antonia's working her scampi dish, I am getting a craving for shellfish, and Nimma announces that she'd like her scampi to "cover all of the elements of taste," which seems like a mighty ambitious goal, and which she hopes to accomplish by marinating the shrimp in parsely. Good luck to you! Oh, and she's making a cauliflower custard, which sounds delicious -- I love cauliflower, and am always glad to see it used.