When Daniel, Soma, and Megumi arrived back at the main hotel, they were relieved to find that all the other Polar Star residents had also passed their first sessions. As they walked through the main lobby, dreams of a fancy dinner and a luxurious hotel room filled their heads. However, this was not to be right now, as they were met by chef Hitoshi Sekimori of the 78th generation, who was standing with a bunch of muscle-bound college athletes behind him.

These athletes, from various athletic clubs at the local college, were there for dinner, and chef Sekimori informed the students that they would be the ones to cook them all dinner. The students seemed horrified, especially Yuki, who asked about their own dinner, to which chef Sekimori responded that once they had finished the challenge, they could make their own dinners. "Wait a minute," Yuki said as her eyes twitched, "I thought we were supposed to have our meals cooked for us!"

"Yeah, that isn't happening," Sekimori deadpanned. "Each student is responsible for cooking all of their own meals while they are here." At this, the disappointment could be felt in the air, especially from Yuki, whose soul Daniel could hear cracking into a thousand pieces at hearing that they wouldn't be getting gourmet meals every night. Sekimori then instructed that each student would be responsible for cooking 50 steak set meals in one hour. Those who didn't complete the challenge would be expelled.

While the challenge seemed overwhelming at first, Daniel was able to gather himself quickly and figure out exactly what foods were supposed to go into this set, as well as how much of each food and how they were meant to be cooked. Once he had figured out these details, he was able to get himself into a rhythm as he became hyper-focused on the sequence of tasks he needed to get done for each set and making his actions as efficient as possible. Soon, he was churning out the sets at a very rapid pace, and before he knew it, chef Sekimori had approved his 50th set, freeing him for the rest of the evening.

As he was walking away from the kitchen area, Daniel texted Soma, asking where he was and what he was up to. When Soma texted back saying he was going to use the bath, Daniel thought that wasn't a bad idea – especially since there wouldn't be anyone else there at the moment and he was a bit self-conscious in those situations. Daniel texted back simply: Meet you there in a few minutes. Once he dropped off his stuff and grabbed a towel, he headed towards the bath area, where he found Soma in conversation with Erina and Hisako – well, really more like Erina and Hisako shrieking at him for whatever reason and Soma being clueless as to why they were doing so. As Daniel approached them, the girls stopped talking to Soma, and looked around as though making sure they weren't causing a scene before walking away haughtily.

When Daniel asked about it, he explained that he had accidentally bumped into Erina as she was exiting the bath area and caused her to fall backwards in the process. "But that doesn't explain why they were that mad at you," Daniel replied. Soma shrugged and said, "All I said to Hisako was that I had knocked her down, but that she was okay." Knowing Soma, Daniel figured he probably said it in a way that made it sound like a double entendre. 'No wonder she was acting like that,' Daniel thought, 'She was probably really embarrassed.' Daniel just sighed and said, "My friend, sometimes you have to be more careful with how you say things."

When they finally got into the men's bath area, they found to their surprise that there was another person already there – stretching in the water was the bulging muscular figure of chef Gin Dojima, who cut an intimidating figure at first, though the casual way he interacted with the two friends quickly put them at ease. Soon, chef Dojima began to comment on how impressed he was that they two of them had completed the 50 serving challenge so quickly. "Yeah, well, it's not like it's anything I haven't done before," Soma replied. "And Daniel here has a cool superpower where he can get stuff done really quick if he's doing it over and over." Chef Dojima looked at Daniel and inflected, "Is that so?"

Dojima then told them about how one first year student had done the same thing the year before and really impressed him – and that he was now the seventh seat on the Council of Ten. 'It would be Isshiki, wouldn't it!?' both Soma and Daniel thought at the same time. "But still," Dojima continued, "It will take a lot more skill than just completing that challenge quickly to get through this training camp, though it does show quite a bit about what you're capable of." As the duo was taking in the wisdom of the established chef before them, Takumi came bursting in the room, yelling at Soma that they would have a proper cooking showdown before long. He then noticed who else was in the room. "Well, I've been in here long enough," Dojima stated. "I wish you boys good luck with the rest of the training camp." As chef Dojima left, Takumi was left stunned at how Soma and Daniel could be so casual around someone like that.

After their bath, Daniel and Soma later gathered with the rest of the Polar Star residents in Zenji's room (as usual) to both enjoy the luxurious comforts of an 800,000 yen per night room and each other's company. Zenji, Yuki, Daigo, and Shoji tried to play a marathon card came, but ended up falling asleep within ten minutes – the fatigue of the day finally catching up to them. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang just sat around chatting and laughing at various antics, when Daniel noticed that Megumi had been awfully quiet for some time. When he turned to her, he noticed that she was holding her red academic charm tightly in her hands. When she noticed Daniel looking at it, she explained, "My mom gave it to me just before I left my hometown for Tostuki." She then began to look a bit down as she continued, "Everyone back home has such high hopes for me. I just wish I were as good as they think."

"Megumi, you are good," Ryoko insisted. "Yeah," Soma added. "Those rice balls you made for all of us were really something else." Megumi still looked down, though, worried about her chances of making it through the training camp. Daniel then got her attention and said, "Let me tell you something my grandma told me – 'Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.'" Megumi looked at Daniel a bit quizzically as Daniel explained, "I know it's easier said than done, but you have to ignore all those people in your classes that tell you that you don't belong here. They don't know you, so they don't know what they're talking about. On the other hand, we're your friends, and we know you. And we also know that you're a terrific chef! You just have to have a little more faith in yourself." Everyone else began to nod in agreement as Megumi softly thanked Daniel for the kind words.

The next morning, Daniel was separated from Soma and Megumi in another group for the morning session. In fact, it looked like he had ended up in a group that was entirely unfamiliar to him before he finally spotted a familiar head of rose pink hair standing at a station next to one that was open. "Good morning…Hisako, right?" Daniel said as he cheerfully greeted Erina's assistant while occupying the empty workstation next to her. Hisako scowled as she replied, "Don't talk to me!" Daniel sighed as he said to her, "Sheesh – what did I do to deserve that? I was just trying to be friendly." The question seemed to hit Hisako a little bit as she realized she had been overly harsh and responded, "Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you, but we're not friends here, so please just keep to your own space."

Moments later, the chef instructor for the exercise walked in – Fuyumi Mizuhara of the 79th generation and owner of the Italian 'Ristorante F.' The students began to settle down as the teal, short-haired chef made her way front and center. As her specialty was Italian cuisine, it was appropriate that the assigned task for the morning was to make an original pasta dish. It could be any type of pasta they chose, but the topping or filling combinations had to be either unusual or completely original. In addition, each student had to actually make the pasta from scratch.

As the students got started trying to figure out what they were going to make, Daniel was still fighting off a bit of hunger, as he only had time for a small, quick bite to eat before getting to the morning session. As he was pondering his hunger, Daniel suddenly came up with an idea that he thought might work. He then went to gather the ingredients he needed. He had gathered everything from the refrigerator, produce basket, and the pantry that he would need, when he saw something unexpected, yet perfect for what he was making. 'Wow, they actually have this here,' Daniel thought. 'This should work nicely.'

Daniel started by sautéing, chopping, and mixing the ingredients he would need for his filling. In a separate pot, he cooked up some diced tomatoes, garlic, and basil to make a nice pomodoro sauce for the pasta. As he got to work making the dough, he rolled the pasta dough out into flat sheets through the machine roller provided to each of them. Since he decided not to use the cutting mechanism, this was going to be a filled pasta. As he got the pasta sheets to the correct thickness, he laid them out on the table and portioned out his filling so that he could cut the portions out after laying out the top pasta sheet layer. As he was doing all of this, he subconsciously fidgeted with the Irish coin in his coat pocket, taking it out and putting it back in a couple of times – something both Hisako and chef Mizuhara noticed.

After securing the filling portions in between the pasta sheets, he cut the individual portions out, ensuring that the filled pasta wouldn't burst while it was cooking. After the water had come to a boil, he dropped the pasta in and kept a careful watch to see when they would rise to the top of the water. After several minutes, the pasta was ready as he used a hand colander to take them out of the water and place them in a sauté pan to finish up in a mixture of the pomodoro sauce and a little bit of the pasta water. When he thought it was all ready, he took one of the raviolis with the sauce and tasted it to make sure it came out the way he wanted. When he tasted it, he smiled and said to himself, "Oh yeah! That's going in the book!" He then placed the remaining pasta into a wide bowl and grated some fresh parmesan cheese over the top before taking it to chef Mizuhara for judgment.

"And what have you made for me here?" asked chef Mizuhara. Daniel smiled confidently and stated, "I present to you a quintessential New York City breakfast in ravioli form. Please, enjoy." Curious as to what it would taste like, chef Mizuhara took one of the top ravioli pieces with her fork and put it in her mouth. Instantly, the taste truly surprised her – in a very good way! The filling consisted of a base mix of ricotta and mascarpone cheeses, with smoked salmon, dill, and caramelized red onion also in the mix. The pasta dough was the perfect thickness and texture, having been cooked to perfection, and the pomodoro sauce provided the perfect acidic contrast to the rich filling.

However, there was another flavor present that chef Mizuhara couldn't quite place. When she asked Daniel about it, Daniel revealed a small glass container containing, "Everything bagel spice mix," he replied. Chef Mizuhara gasped, as did Hisako, who had been watching this unfold. What Daniel had done was to reinterpret the everything bagel sandwich into a ravioli dish. For the filling, you had the ricotta and mascarpone serving as the cream cheese component, with the smoked salmon, dill, and red onion also present. Of course, the pomodoro sauce served the tomato slice role. But what he had done to elevate the dish's flavor and originality was to integrate the everything bagel spice mix into the pasta dough itself, allowing the pasta to serve as the bagel.

'Amazing,' thought chef Mizuhara. 'He was actually able to completely reinterpret an ordinary breakfast dish into an exceptional pasta dish. You wouldn't normally think to use this combination of flavors when making pasta, but it works perfectly!' She then gave a small, but noticeable grin as she said to Daniel, "I must say, you've impressed me. I've never seen someone come up with something so original and pull it off so well. You pass." After pumping his fist in the air in celebration, Daniel then bowed in respect to chef Mizuhara and said, "Thank you, chef. I'm glad you liked it." He then asked, "Once I clean up, may I be excused? There are a couple of friends in another room that I want to be sure to meet up with." Chef Mizuhara then nodded in ascent.

As Daniel worked on cleaning his workstation, Hisako continued to take several surprised glances at Daniel, shocked that Daniel was able to show that level of skill. It made her begin to reconsider her position and attitude towards him. He may not have had a lot of previous experience, nor had he been at Totsuki very long, but if he was capable of producing a dish like that, then…. Hisako continued working on her dish, her mind occasionally wandering towards what she had seen from Daniel as he finished cleaning before writing down the recipe in his black notebook and leaving the room, headed for the room where Soma and Megumi were now cooking.