Recap: 'Top Chef' Season 14, Episode 2

Grab your truffle butter popcorn and settle in, folks: It's time for another recap of Top Chef Charleston. Season 14 continues with episode two, and the drama is real as ever. Get ready for chef squabbles, oven malfunctions and a few disappointing dishes. In other words, what Top Chef is all about.

Here are eight key takeaways from this week's episode, including the intense, food-filled moments only Top Chef could provide.

① In this week's elimination challenge, the chefs are asked to prepare family style meals embodying Lowcountry Southern cuisine. They're invited into the homes of Charleston chefs Carrie Morey and BJ Dennis, and draw inspiration from their classic, home-cooked dishes.

② This season is all about eight newcomers and eight returning contestants battling it out for the glory, and the Top Chef producers are not about to let this "rookies vs. veterans" thing die down. This week, they split the group into two teams, new vs. old, and successfully expand the rift between them even further. As rookie chef Emily Hahn puts it, "I'm pretty PO'd right now. I am not a rookie chef."

③ Get ready for the most intensely stressful Whole Foods shopping trip you've ever seen. The rookie team can't locate their grocery list, the veterans can't find fresh corn and everyone goes immediately over budget. Plus, one contestant pisses everyone off by spending way too much money on pork, and it's all heightened by the dramatic musical cues accompanying the scene. We could hardly breathe from the excitement.

④ Additionally, prepare yourself for the most intense conversation about biscuits you've ever witnessed. (Thanks again, scoring guy.) The rookies never planned on making biscuits for their Southern meal, and they're dripping with regret as they discuss their misstep the night before the challenge. As Padma Lakshmi so aptly points out later, "The biscuits are a glaring omission." Dun dun dun.

⑤ Vet chef John Tesar knows Tom Colicchio hates okra, and he decides to make. . . okra. Tom ends up loving it though. What a twist!

⑥ Padma uses the word toothsomeness. Take note.

⑦ The chef who loves cooking vegetables burned his vegetables in the last episode, so he makes more roasted vegetables this go-round to redeem himself. And he burns them. Where is Alanis Morissette when you need her?

⑧ The veterans know how to play this game. And by that, we mean they've just been drinking the whole time, while the rookies cry about their omitted biscuits.