- We like learning when West Texans make it big.

And that's what Odessan, Alejandro Barrientos has done in the cooking arena.

He appeared on a nationally-televised cooking competition and won!

Chef Alejandro started with a six-foot folding table at the Odessa Farmers Market.

He now owns two West Texas restaurants and has appeared on two shows on the Food Channel, breaking ground for local chefs, and putting West Texas on the culinary map.

Recently, we cooked and chatted with the chef about his career in cooking.

I'm Becky Ferguson, and this is "One Que?tion."

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) Odessa Chef Alejandro Barrientos, a homegrown, locally-trained chef, won a recent episode of "Chopped," an enormously popular cooking competition show on the Food Network, now in its 55th season, Chef Alejandro won in an episode entitled, "Fry of the Beholder."

He'll explain how the show works and the challenges posed to the competing chefs on tonight's episode.

He'll also explain how he was recruited to participate in the pressure of cooking on the clock.

Alejandro began his restaurant in 2014 with a table at the Odessa Farmers Market.

He went on to operate two food trucks before opening his Odessa restaurant, Curbside Bistro in 2017.

He describes his style of cooking as elevated comfort food, and tonight he prepares a dish for us.

Along the way, he shares the most important thing he learned in culinary school and how to develop a dish.

He explains that buffalo chicken has nothing to do with buffaloes.

He also talks about his soon-to-open Midland location and why the decor will be graffiti.

Alejandro, thank you so much for being with us today, and the occasion of our visit today is that you won "Chopped."

- Yes, ma'am.

- Which is not nothing.

So I want you to start off by talking a little bit about "Chopped," and then I want you to teach me how to- - We'll start chopping it up.

- Yes, yes.

So, how did you happen to be selected to be on the show?

- It's actually very, very crazy.

They actually messaged us through very, it's not official or anything like that.

You get this random message through Instagram, which seems like a scam, because it says, "Hey, Alejandro, we love your pictures, we love your food.

"We think you'd be perfect for a cooking show."

And then all of a sudden they send you an application, and it's like all your personal info, like driver's license, social security.

And I'm like, "No, wait a minute, "this seems a little sketchy."

- Yeah, yeah.

No, but, yeah, the whole process took a couple months.

It's like applying for a job.

They wanna know everything about you, your cooking history, what you cook, photos.

And it was very surreal, because you would submit these photos of food, and they would message you back, "That's perfect, what's the recipe for it?"

And so you had to go back and write the recipe, and they're like, "That's perfect, send us more pictures.

"Send us pictures of yourself.

"Send us pictures of your restaurant."

So, it was a very, very long, tedious process.

- And you weren't just on "Chopped," you won "Chopped."

- Yes, ma'am, I was blessed enough to win "Chopped."

- It's an amazing episode, and I watched it, and everything had to be fried.

That was the contest that day.

- Yes, ma'am.

- So, very challenging.

What was the most challenging ingredient?

- The dessert round, the dessert round, I wasn't really familiar with halo-halo.

It was a Korean or Vietnamese dessert.

I'm still not too familiar with it, but it- - You don't need to be.

- (laughs) Yeah, it's not real big in West Texas.

I know there's a couple places making it now, but it's not something I grew up on, eating as a child of my favorite dessert.

But yeah, the whole theme, it was a theme episode, and the whole theme was everything, every component, or every dish that you created had to have a deep fried component.

And I was like, "Man, that's right up my alley.

"That is perfect."

- And for people who haven't watched that show, basically you open a basket of ingredients, and there's always something sort of weird and unexpected, and you have to make first an appetizer, then the entree, and then the dessert.

- Yes, ma'am, so it's in three rounds.

It starts off with four chefs, three rounds, three mystery baskets, and then there's mystery ingredients in each basket for each round, and you have to use whatever- - [Becky] All of them.

- Yes, however you can, like your own interpretation of the dish.

So let's say there's a cake in one of them, and it's for an appetizer round, and you just want to use the frosting, you can.

You don't have to use the actual cake part- - You don't have to use cake for cake.

And it's timed, that's the trick, so it's like ready, set, go.

- [Alejandro] Yes, ma'am.

- Open the basket and- - Yes, ma'am, and the very first round is the shortest, it's 20 minutes.

The first round's 20 minutes, the second one's 30, and the last one's 30.

But, when you're watching at the house, and you're watching it on TV, you're like, "Oh, it is not that bad, 20 minutes is a long time."

No, when you're in that kitchen, it is a pressure cooker.

The time is going by fast.

There's no music, there's no sound, there's everybody...

This is all you hear.

(knife chopping) And, "Oh, I'm not gonna make it, I'm not gonna make it!"

You just hear everybody running around, and everybody's either running behind you or running beside you, and so, it's very, very chaotic.

- All right, I wanna keep talking about "Chopped" and about your restaurant in Odessa and the one that you're about to open in Midland, but I wanna cook, or at least I wanna watch you cook, so what are we gonna do today?

- (laughs) No problem, so we're gonna make, which is one of my personal favorites, is a buffalo chicken mac and cheese.

So this is a very fun, very creative dish.

I like it because it's so versatile.

We have different cheeses here.

I'll show you which ones we have, but you can literally use anything you have in this.

- Well, and one of the things that you told me when we spoke on the phone is that you like to make expected dishes in an unexpected way.

- (laughs) Yes, ma'am, we like to package things that you know, like a slider, a burger, everybody knows what a burger is.

It's gonna have some type of bun and meat and cheese, but we like to like put our own twist to it.

So we have one with bacon jam in it, a fried egg.

We have one with mac and cheese on top.

We have one where the patty's actually mixed with chorizo meat and (Mexican term) and hatch green chili and guacamole.

So there's all these different types of crazy creative ways we can package it, but you're still familiar with it.

It's not like I'm giving you like a shark fin taco or something.

(laughs) - Right, right, right.

- Something you're totally not familiar with, so.

- Okay, so let's talk about what we have here.

And you've laid everything out, which you said there's a name for what you've done here.

- Yes ma'am, so this in culinary school, and they teach you, they pound it into your head, you actually get graded on this.

Your grade really, really depends on this.

And even in professional kitchens, this is the telling of a really good chef is mise en place, everything in its place.

So before we even start working on a stove, or you start baking or anything, you measure everything out, you have everything weighed out, you have everything laid out, so once you actually start cooking, you're just assembling.

You're just cooking, you're just mixing, whatever you're doing.

You're not getting here and running to the fridge and oh, I forgot this.

- So it's an efficiency thing.

- Yes, it's an efficient thing, especially in the restaurant.

Or you're cooking something, you have it on the stove, you're like, "Oh, I forgot this seasoning," and you have to run and go get it to your pantry, come back, and it's burnt.

So today, we have laid out some sharp cheddar cheese, Colby and Monterey mix, mozzarella, and this one of my personal favorites, is smoked gouda.

Smoked gouda, I love it, it has a smokey depth to it.

I think it's perfect with the buffalo sauce and the ranch, and they all just blend together and give really, really good flavor.

We have toasted bread crumbs.

Breadcrumbs, add a little herbs, toss 'em a little bit of butter, toasted 'em up.

- And this is to give some crispness?

- Yes ma'am, exactly.

So when we're building a dish, when we're developing a dish, you want to give textures, different textures, layer of textures, layer of flavors.

You don't just want it to be 100% percent spicy.

You want some sweet in there, you want some creaminess, you want a little bit of bite to it, so this is a nice crunchy component to it.

Our macaroni noodles already have been pre-cooked, drained, nice and al dente, just ready to toss into our sauce.

- Do you toss 'em in a little bit of oil, so they don't stick together?

- Yes ma'am, so if you're gonna make it a couple hours in advance, toss 'em in a little bit of oil, never water.

Don't rinse out the water, you want that starch.

It's just a little bit of oil and just very little, just so they don't stick.

But usually, if I'm doing this at the house or restaurant, it goes straight from the boiling water, straight to my sauce.

- [Becky] Got it.

- That way, the starch.

Thinly sliced chicken breast, Cajun seasoning.

We have a little bit of chicken stock, our homemade ranch in squirt bottles.

This is always in our house.

We always have this in a squirt bottle.

Buffalo sauce, olive oil, heavy cream.

This is like that mystery, that secret ingredient to any creamy sauce, an Alfredo, any cream-based sauce, a little heavy cream goes a long way.

- Yeah, of course it does.

I have a friend who says that coffee is a delivery device for cream.

- (laughs) There you go, there you go.

You gotta introduce me, that sounds like my type of people.

- (laughs) Yeah!

- Cajun seasoning and then a little bit of olive oil, super, super easy.

- Okay.

Now you told me this dish is buffalo macaroni and cheese.

- Yes ma'am, buffalo macaroni and cheese.

- Okay, now where does the buffalo come from?

- Usually from the farm, we get a nice buffalo from the farm.

(laughs) - From the buffalo farm?

- Yeah, from the buffalo farm.

No, buffalo wing, it derives from Buffalo, New York.

There's a place called the Anchor Bar, and they had some extra chicken wings.

And usually, not a lot of people know this, but chicken wings were a throwaway.

They didn't use 'em in the kitchen.

The only reason they used 'em in the kitchen was for stock, like chicken stock, and the butchers threw 'em away.

It was a very, very cheap cut.

There's no meat on it or anything else.

So she fried some up at her bar, fried some 'em up, threw a little buffalo sauce on it, or wing sauce or hot sauce.

At that time it was just called hot sauce.

- And the rest is history, oh my gosh.

- The rest is history, but that's the original place at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

- Okay, in Buffalo, all right.

- You gotta make it out there when-.

- Yeah, for sure, okay, so what are we gonna do here?

- So we're gonna go ahead and season the chicken breast.

We'll pull some out.

- Just put them on this cutting board?

- Just put 'em on the cutting board, and we have two different cutting boards.

This is for the raw one, and this is for when it's already ready, and we'll cook- - And so, on these skinny chicken breasts, you buy 'em like this, you don't have to pound them?

- [Alejandro] No, ma'am.

- [Becky] That's nice.

- [Alejandro] Yeah, so the grocery store does a nice job of cutting 'em for you, nice and thin.

It's good if you wanna make a milanesa or chicken cutlets or anything else like that.

And I'm just going to cube up a little bit of the smoked gouda.

- Okay, so while we're laying this stuff out, tell me about your restaurant in Odessa.

What is it called and how did you get it started?

- It's called Curbside Bistro.

- Curbside Bistro?

- Yes, ma'am.

Curbside Bistro in Odessa.

We actually started at farmers markets, our local farmers markets with a six-foot folding table.

So, a six-foot folding table, and we were making crepes.

We were making crepes to order.

We had pumpkin butter, we had muffins, we had homemade salsa, and we just printed out our logo on printer paper, and people were like, "Oh, what's that?"

I'm like, "Oh, it's our food truck.

"We have a food truck.

"I'm a chef, and we're about to open it."

And they were like, "Okay, where's that?"

We really didn't have it, it was in pieces.

Yeah, we were building it, so it wasn't real at time.

- And when was this?

- This is 2014.

2014, so we started building it, but that generated our buzz.

And through Facebook and Instagram, we started posting pictures, posting pictures of our logos, just getting the buzz out there for the community, and that way they knew that- - You were coming.

- That we're coming.

- You were here.

- Yes, ma'am.

We're gonna grab it.

- Okay, I'm gonna watch you do it.

- All right, so when we season, a lot of people at home, they have a tendency of when they season, they go like this, real small.

And the only thing about that is if you're adding salt or pepper, it kind of just sticks in one place, so you want to go nice and high and give it a nice little coat, nice and high.

- Okay, you're gonna trust me to do that?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Okay, we'll see if I can.

- There you go, there you go, perfect, perfect.

In a minute we'll flip it, and we'll do both sides.

- [Becky] And Cajun seasoning has what in it?

- It has a different blend of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, smoked paprika, a little bit of cayenne, black pepper.

That's what you start smelling- - [Becky] Cayenne gives the- - [Alejandro] Nice little kick.

- [Becky] The little heat, yup.

- [Alejandro] Yeah ma'am, nice little color.

- [Becky] Okay, would you do more than that?

- [Alejandro] Nah, that's perfect, that's perfect.

- [Becky] You think, okay.

- Yes, ma'am.

- Now what about the other side?

- When we get it in the pan, we'll just hit it, the other side.

- Okay, got it, okay.

- Yes, ma'am.

All right, and then we got everything laid out, ready to go.

Now you're ready to cook.

The food is ready.

- Ready to cook, all right.

- Are we ready?

- Let's do it.

(dramatic music) - All right.

(dramatic music continues) - [Becky] So what are we doing here?

- [Alejandro] So we got two pans, one for our chicken and one for our macaroni.

This is where we're actually gonna make our sauce in.

Put a little olive oil- - You're starting with what kind of oil, olive oil?

- Olive oil, just a little bit of olive oil.

Get the pan nice and hot, nice hot pan.

Usually a lot of people, they tend to overuse olive oil, 'cause they start with a cold pan.

So it actually expands as it gets hot, and then you'll see that here in a minute.

Just get the pan nice evenly coated, and here in a minute, we're gonna start throwing in our macaroni noodles, our heavy cream, a little chicken broth, get that warmed up.

Once that gets nice and hot and starts bubbling, you'll see it start dancing, doing its thing, we'll start adding our cheese slowly, and then it goes from there.

This feels about warmed up.

- [Becky] All right, so here you go with the chicken.

- [Alejandro] Yes ma'am, let's see if that's warmed up.

(chicken sizzles) And every time you put any type of meat or you're sautéing or cooking anything, you always want to lay it away from you, just in case you get a little bit of that olive oil splash, it'll splash to the back, you don't have to worry about it.

- [Becky] Ah, it'll splash to the back.

- Yes, ma'am, we'll cook three pieces.

Which one's your favorite?

Pick it out.

That one, all right.

- There we go, all right.

- [Alejandro] Don't want it to get left out- - [Becky] And then what, so is this like medium high temperature that you're using here?

- [Alejandro] Yes, medium high, you're gonna see, it's gonna cook really, really quick just because of how thinly it's sliced.

- [Becky] Yes.

(chicken sizzling) - [Alejandro] Now if I make you cough, it's the seasoning, okay?

- [Becky] It's the cayenne, (Alejandro chuckles) yup, my favorite, love that.

- [Alejandro] There you go.

- [Becky] Okay, so here we're gonna start with your heavy cream.

- [Alejandro] And we can always add a little bit more.

- And I'm gonna make you talk about two things while you're cooking.

Okay, so your cooking truck, you started years ago, and then you parlayed that into a restaurant.

So talk a little bit about your restaurant in Odessa.

- Our restaurant, we were blessed with the building that we got, we got it in 2017.

This is after being on the road, after having one food truck, then we had two food trucks, 'cause we got so popular at one location.

We had a location that we stayed at almost all the time.

People knew that we opened up for lunch and dinner, downtown Odessa, but we were getting calls from like oil field companies, caterings, weddings, churches, we did a lot of events for churches, and so... Look that, see how nice, and you see how quick?

- [Becky] Yeah, beautiful.

- [Alejandro] You can see the color coming in.

- [Becky] It starts to get a little white, okay.

- [Alejandro] Yes ma'am, it's really, really quick.

And you're getting that nice color from the Cajun season.

You see not that much oil from...

I'll probably turn that down here in a minute.

- And you don't worry about olive oil having a burning point?

- It does have a smoking point, but it's a little bit higher than your normal with butter or something like that.

And so if I am gonna use butter, I just start with olive oil.

I start with olive oil and finish it with butter or add a nice mix of a little bit of olive oil and butter.

- Okay, all right, so you have this restaurant in Odessa that you expanded into and now you're coming to Midland.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Yes ma'am, yeah, our Midland location we're very excited about.

Midland has always been one of our big supporters.

We're brother and sister cities, we're right next door.

So as much buzz as we have in Odessa, we have in Midland.

And it's crazy for me to think it was a destination, so some Midlanders would come to Odessa just for our restaurant.

They'd put it on Facebook, and they showed us love and support and they'd share our posts and everything else, so it was really, really cool.

We knew that love was there, and we're just super excited to be a part of Midland now.

- [Becky] Okay, so you're adding some- - [Alejandro] A little bit of chicken stock.

- [Becky] A little chicken stock.

- [Alejandro] Yes ma'am, and I want this to get nice and bubbly, you'll see it.

- [Becky] Yeah, I'm seeing that.

So tell us where your restaurant's gonna be and what it'll be called.

- 607 North Colorado Street, downtown Midland, Curbside Bistro, we're keeping the same concept.

We're just coming to Midland.

We're gonna change a couple things.

That restaurant actually has a full bar.

Yeah, beautiful.

We're just gonna let these cook and do its thing.

That one actually has a full bar, so we're gonna do some bar menu items.

We're thinking about doing Saturday brunch and some events, partnering up with some amazing breweries here in Midland, Tall City Brewing, We're talking to them, maybe doing some type of special limited edition beer.

I know we wanna get involved in the community, do some markets, see how we can actually give back to the community.

- Okay, now we talked a little bit about "Chopped," but that wasn't your first opportunity on the Food Network.

You cooked with Bobby Flay.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Yeah, we got the opportunity to go on the show, "Beat Bobby Flay."

- [Becky] Did you beat him?

- No ma'am, we didn't make it all the way.

So, (laughs) but there's always redemption.

You can always do part two, but it was an amazing experience just to be on the Food Network.

I was one of the first ones in West Texas to be on the Food Network in the show, and I think that opened a lot of doors for us and for the whole food community, the whole, everybody kind of got this vibe and this energy of, okay, yeah, I can make it.

There's this guy in Odessa- - That did it!

- That did it, and he started from a food truck.

You see how we get the heavy cream nice and boiling?

And now that's gonna come up, we're gonna add our cheeses.

- [Becky] Now where did you train?

- I actually went there at Odessa at Odessa College.

- Okay, to their culinary school?

- [Alejandro] Yes ma'am.

- So now you're putting in your smoked gouda and your sharp cheddar.

- My smoked gouda and my sharp cheddar.

You'll see the color change in a minute.

A little mozzarella, and each of these cheese adds a different flavor profile and the creaminess of it.

So we got mozzarella, we got a little bit of cheddar, we got a little bit of the gouda, and you'll start seeing it come together.

- [Becky] You do that so expertly, none of the stuff is going all over the stove.

I guess that took a little practice.

- [Alejandro] (laughs) Just gimme a minute, I'll get it where...

I'm trying not to make a mess here.

You see how creamy it's starting to get?

- Yeah, that just looks delicious.

What would you say is your signature dish at your restaurant, or do you have one?

- The buffalo fries, which is a version of this, but instead of mac and cheese, it's a bed of homemade cut fries, and we threw buffalo sauce in the ranch, and then our Homer Simpson Burger.

- Oh gosh.

(Alejandro laughs) - Yeah, we call it the Homer Simpson Burger.

Now see how it's starting to get a little bit too creamy?

- [Becky] Yeah, yeah.

- [Alejandro] We need a little bit more heavy cream.

I'm gonna turn down the heat, add a little bit of this chicken stock.

- [Becky] Now what's the chicken stock doing, just making it a little more liquidy?

- [Alejandro] A little bit more liquid, but it's adding flavor as well too.

So again, we're layering flavor on top of flavor.

So instead of just adding water or milk, we're adding chicken stock, and this one's unsalted.

So a lot of people, when they add, let's say butter, or another ingredient like that, get back in there, where are you going?

(Becky chuckles) When they add ingredients like that, they start adding with salt, and then at the end, they taste their dish, and it's way too salty, and they wonder why.

But it's easier for us, all the chefs, even the bakers, they use unsalted butter for their dishes, because you like to be in control of the seasoning.

- So the salt in this dish is coming from the Cajun season.

- From the Cajun season, and then the cheese.

- Oh, of course.

- A little bit of the smoked gouda, sharp cheddar cheese.

There was salt in the pasta water when we cooked the pasta.

The chicken's done, it's beautiful.

You see, it didn't take long, and no fuss-no muss.

I'm not tossing it, I'm not- - [Becky] Right, just letting it- - [Alejandro] Letting it cook, let it do its thing.

Letting it get some beautiful color, and you'll see it in a minute when we layer this.

all I'm waiting for this is right here, that gouda melt and look how nice and creamy it's getting and that sauce, and if you're gonna do this for a dinner party or for dinner, and you want to get it started a little bit ahead of time, you can always put a baking sheet, put the cheese over it, and just pop it in the oven to warm it up a little bit.

- Now say that again.

- If you're gonna do it for a party ahead of time or for dinner and you don't have the time to make it right there, and then you can make it ahead of time, put everything in a baking dish- - Oh, gotcha.

- Put the cheese on it and then just pop it in the oven, 30 minutes, 45 minutes before.

- Okay, I like that tip, so you're basically baking it.

- [Alejandro] Yes ma'am, a baked mac and cheese, and it gives you a chance to add more cheese on top, so that's always a good thing.

All right, we're ready to plate.

- [Becky] Let's do it.

Okay, so you've cooked your chicken, and you've put your macaroni and the multiple cheeses together over there, so now we're gonna plate, so talk to me about plating.

- Now we're gonna plate.

I'm gonna make this kind of like homestyle, family style.

You can do this per person.

This will go really good if you have other vegetables or anything else like this.

But I guarantee if you bring this to a potluck or invite you over and you have to bring a dish, you're gonna be the envy.

Everybody's gonna be super jealous.

(laughs) Everybody's just- - You'll be the star.

- Yeah, that plate's gonna look just as clean as when you brought it over.

So we're gonna start with our mac and cheese.

Look how creamy that is, all right.

- Yum, oh my gosh, that looks so good.

- We're just gonna put it right in the middle.

- Okay, you need to talk a little bit more about the Homer Simpson Burger.

I kind of interrupted you, we need to know more about that.

- [Alejandro] The Homer Simpson actually has an all-beef patty.

Look at all that creamy deliciousness.

- [Becky] Yum.

- All-beef patty, American cheese, and we have our mac and cheese that we throw right on top of the burger, bacon bits and barbecue sauce.

And we call it the Homer Simpson, 'cause when you take a bite, you're like, "Oh."

- [Becky] Okay, okay, I love that.

All right, so here we go.

- We got our mac and cheese.

We got our chicken.

We're gonna cut it up, nice little slices of it.

And you can see it's nice and still juicy.

- [Becky] It's perfect.

- [Alejandro] All right, I got a couple pieces, throw 'em right there, right on top, since this family style, right there.

- What is in the buffalo sauce?

- This buffalo sauce actually has butter and hot sauce.

I use Frank's, Frank's Buffalo, and then you could kind of see, once it gets here, it starts separating a little bit, so mix it up.

- The butter, yeah.

- Yeah, a little butter.

So this is the actual kick right here.

And you have kids, they love decorating, (Becky laughs) they love sprucing it up, so our little buffalo sauce right on top, our homemade ranch, you gotta have have ranch seasoning and give it a little twirl.

- [Becky] And what's in homemade ranch?

- [Alejandro] A bunch of dill, a bunch of seasonings, buttermilk, right, and then to give a nice little crunch right on top.

There you go, you can add more or less if you want.

If you've got Parmesan cheese, you can add a little bit on top, whatever you like.

But there you go, your Buffalo Chicken Ranch Mac and Cheese.

- That is just beautiful, oh my gosh, okay.

So if we come to your restaurant in Odessa, we can get this and soon.

Tell us a little bit more about when your Midland restaurant is opening.

- We're trying to go as fast as we can.

We're getting some of the equipment in.

We got some equipment in right now.

I'm bringing in local graffiti artists to do the art.

We're trying to find the theme of every place we go into, we kind of find like the soul of the restaurant, the soul of the building.

And so we gotta go in there, talk to the building- - Let the building talk to you?

- Yeah, let the building, 'cause that's the same thing we did with the Odessa location.

It wanted art, it wanted graffiti.

it wanted some bold colors.

So we gotta get in that place and see what the building tells us.

- Now, why graffiti?

- Graffiti, so me and my wife were both born in south side Odessa, and we're both like hip hop and rap, and that's what we grew up on.

Everybody has their own genre of music, either it be rock and roll, classic, blues, jazz, soul, whatever that is, and their whole style comes from that.

So if you listen to rock and your style is that, so ours is hip hop and rap and loud, bright music and the graffiti work, and it just goes right to our roots.

And even with the food truck, whenever we go to different locations, you'd be passing walls full of graffiti, full of art, and to us, that's our art.

We saw more graffiti art than we did in museums.

So coming from the south side of Odessa, it wasn't like every weekend we'd go to a museum, or we'd go to a museum open.

But while you're walking to school, you'd pass a couple alleys or trash dumpsters with graffiti, and that's what we saw as art.

- That's what speaks to you.

- Yes, ma'am.

- That's so interesting.

Okay, I wanna loop back to Bobby Flay.

What did you cook when you were competing?

- I did pork loin with caramelized apples, onions, and a red wine reduction, (laughs) a lot in about 15 minutes.

I think in 15, 20 minutes, I can't remember what it was, but I cook really, really fast.

I like to use a lot of bold flavors.

You saw this, we whipped it up really, really quick.

It's something simple, but it's again, just layering of flavors, so you got the spiciness, you got the creaminess, you got the smoked gouda, you got the Cajun, you got the kick of the Cajun, you got the herbs and you smell the herbs.

- I wish everybody could smell it, it smells so good.

And then the textures, talk a little bit about mixing textures.

- Yes ma'am, so when you eat, you don't want everything just to be bland.

You're not eating pudding, you're not eating pudding, so you have to have a contrast.

Everything is with contrast, so you got the nice bite of the chicken, you got the creaminess in the mac and cheese, you got the breadcrumbs, you got the bite from the buffalo sauce that kind of hits out.

If you hear, your buffalo sauce is like lemon, it kind of hits you right there.

So they're all doing this beautiful ballet of flavors and dancing on your tongue and just making you want the second bite.

You gotta try it.

- [Becky] Okay, dig in?

- [Alejandro] I want an honest review.

- [Becky] Well, an honest review, I know in advance I'm gonna love it.

It just looks so delicious.

- What do you think?

- It hits all the notes.

You're exactly right.

Yum, it is so creamy.

It is so spicy.

I love the crunch of the breadcrumbs.

- [Alejandro] Yes, ma'am.

- Alejandro, congratulations on winning "Chopped."

- Thank you, thank you - On your growing business, and thanks for spending some time with us, really appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me, I appreciate you.

- Our art tonight comes from Curbside Bistro in Odessa.

It was painted by Bonito Mendoza of Mexico, 35-year-old Mendoza, who has adopted the pseudonym, Deco Uno, first painted during his adolescence when he volunteered to spray paint the symbol used by his neighborhood gang on the south side of Juárez.

"The Odessa American" reports Mendoza used that excuse as a teenager to exit gang activity.

He has spray painted more than 100 murals in the US and Mexico.

Mendoza says his artwork serves two purposes.

The first is that he is able to live comfortably off of his art.

The second is his artwork serves as a social responsibility.

Mendoza says he can make art in places that wouldn't usually have any, especially low-income neighborhoods.

He says he is most influenced by Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

Chef Alejandro and his wife first noticed Mendoza's work on a visit to El Paso, so they sought him out and commissioned the work at Curbside Bistro in Odessa.

He had never been to West Texas before and reported, "The whole ride over here, "I was thinking about what I was going to do.

"I saw the landscape that there was nothing here, "no color, just a desert.

"I know what this place kinda needs," he said.

He used vibrant colors on his Odessa designs, his interpretation of a Curbside Bistro burger.

Mendoza is reportedly commissioned to graffiti the Midland Curbside Bistro, due to open in June.

(dramatic music) Finally, thank you for joining us for this edition of "One Que?tion."

We will be back from time to time with special interest interviews.

I'm Becky Ferguson, goodnight.

(dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues)