In this week’s episode of Top Chef Texas, Chicago chef Chuy Valencia made a salmon-goat cheese dish that featured an overcooked salmon and, well, that goat cheese. As Tom Colicchio put it bluntly on his blog, “I didn’t want to eat it.” Indeed, it looked like the worst combination of flavors since my then-11-year-old sister ordered mint coffee ice cream with a pineapple topping at a Howard Johnson. In any event, Chuy got the axe. But certainly Chris Jones of Moto was a close second. His edible replica of a cigar (wrapper made from collard greens) was described by the judges as “gimmicky.” And while it certainly looked like a stogie, not many people actually want to even pretend to eat one, let alone the edible ashes. Both the skill at creating this appetizer and the “gimmicky” nature of it should not come as a surprise, however, since Chris hails from a molecular gastronomy mecca, Moto. (It looks like shrimp cocktail but it’s actually a sweet dessert! No wait, it’s a hamburger dressed to look like a lobster tail but tastes like pistachios!) You can read the rest of my update here.