No luck -- Ryan's thoughts turn to the holidays and "the kid that gets shot with the BB with his eye and they go get Asian food instead," and he's clearly entered some other zone, excitedly babbling nonsense and looking at Mark with crazy eyes (see, total Janice). Problem is, neither of them knows that the movie is called A Christmas Story, but Manuel helps them out. Mark claims that "everyone's seen it," but his befuddled air implies that he disproves his own argument. Lisa and Stephanie, together again on what should be, according the generally accepted flow of a meal, a dessert course, decide to go savory since they just collaborated on last week's cobbler, and neither of them are pastry chefs.

Lisa announces to the others that they are "doing beef and short ribs on the plate," and connects their beef dish to the classic dick-as-teat scene in Top Secret!, which, upon a brief glance at its packaging, looks to have a lot more to do with cows than I recall. Calling Lisa "strong and bold," Stephanie lets her take the reins, or whatever you use to steer cows, and lets slip that she hasn't ever seen the movie. With planning for each course complete, it's off to Whole Foods with $150 and half an hour to shop.

Dale peppers the fishmonger with instructions about a large piece of salmon, which will become smoked salmon with faux caviar made with tapioca pearls and a wasabi white chocolate sauce. Using chocolate is a smart move based on the movie at hand, but that sounds like a very strange combination of flavors. Andrew promises that their dish will inspire the guests to "culinarily crap in their pants," which is always fun at parties. Shopping for their summer roll ingredients, Manuel pushes for Chilean sea bass, while Spike would prefer a milder fish like tilapia -- but, says Spike, he understands that "as a chef, you have to compromise with your employees." Ouch. He quickly corrects himself ("uh, the people you work with") but it's too late. Hasn't he seen this? The Mexican will be bringing his roots with a chile rub for the fish.