Episode 2:
It’s all about
接待【せったい】 (reception, welcome, serving (food), (2) business entertainment) type of situation.
The Renoir owner is first taken to a fancy restaurant, but that place has the audacity to serve food out of season! The fried mackerel being the final straw before he storms out of the room. People who are that insensitive and undiscerning about food is not worthy of his Renoir! booo! 
鯵 あじ Japanese jack mackerel, horse mackerel
So, Oohara turns to Kurita and Yamaoka in hope that they can make it up to Mantaro Kyogoku (the painting owner). Yamaoka’s solution is to seek out Tatsu-san, a homeless person, who receives food from various places for taking care of their trash, and therefore knows Ginza’s restaurants well. Yamaoka gives a very different せったい to Tatsu-san, bringing the sake 
, while they share some food Tatsu-san just got from a restaurant, on the floor of the subway while people walk past - much to Kurita’s embarrassment! 
Tatsu tips them off about a restaurant in Ginza. (Minor spoiler) This restaurant will be featured repeatedly as the Touzai News become regulars of this place and we further get to know the cook and owner, Seiichi Okaboshi
Yamaoka it a real jerk here! >: Telling Kurita to go home and sleep, since it’s past bedtime for kids. (this is a 27-year old talking to a 22-year old 
) while Yamaoka says he’ll do further research.
Arriving at the restaurant some days later, Mantaro Kyogoku is full of doubt about the place. He’s rather rude and dismissing about the whole thing. “will a place (simple-looking like this is implied) be able to serve any good food?”, “so, the chef is this greenhorn”
若造 わかぞう youngster; neophyte; greenhorn
It’s interesting how rude Yamaoka is as well! He doesn’t greet Kyogoku in any way, just stays seated and tells the chef to start preparing the food.
And the dish presented is quite the shocker! lol It’s a standard Japanese breakfast, miso-soup, fish, and rice. That’s it!
丸干し まるぼし whole dried small fish; whole dried daikon
But of course, all is not as it seems! dun dun dun
Yamaoka has done extensive research about Kyogoku as a person, looking into where he’s from and thus the dish reflects his hometown and is meticulously prepared by Okaboshi, the chef, using the very best ingredients (rice, miso, etc). So it’s deeply nostalgic and personal to Kyogoku, who is deeply moved by this simple dish.
I guess the moral in this episode is that expensive food can’t beat personal and well-made simplicity in cooking. 
BUT, things doesn’t end there. When it’s revealed that the true mastermind behind this dish is Yamaoka, Kyogoku thinks he recognizes Yamaoka as the son of Kaibara Yuuzan. Yamaoka insists he doesn’t know any Kaibara, and that that Kyogoku is mistaken.
And that confrontation makes Yamaoka try to resign from the assignment of the Ultimate Menu! Clearly, something deeper lies behind Yamaoka’s deep dislike for culinary snobbishness - even though he clearly knows a LOT about food. Enter Kaibara Yuuzan dramatic music dun dun
Turns out Yamaoka really IS the son of Kaibara Yuuzan, a well-known culinary figure and founder of the Gourmet Club - the epitome of snobbish eating and food appreciation for the affluent. It turns out Kaibara has a very antagonistic attitude to his son, just as Yamaoka dislikes him!
Kaibara accuses Yamaoka of incompetence when it comes to food, bringing up the art of tempura as a challenge. 
A challenge Yamaoka can’t back down from!
Which leads to the walk of shame:
While Yamaoka lose the pissing competition against Kaibara, the confrontation makes him committed to the Ultimate Menu! Yay! ^>^
So, that’s the big conclusion of this episode and so the main setting for the show is now set up with these first episodes.
Also, this is not going to be the last time Yamaoka helps Itayama…