At his Chicago restaurant Chilam Balam, Chuy Valencia serves up a salmon-goat cheese dish that is popular with his customers. But on this week’s episode of Top Chef Texas, it was anything but popular. “Smoked fish is paired with cream, which is why mild cream cheese works with lox,” writes head judge Tom Colicchio on his blog. “But goat cheese is pungent, and I can’t figure out why Chuy would think it paired well with salmon. Think about it: In Italy, we do not put parmesan on fish dishes…. Chuy couldn’t execute the dish properly because his proportions were off: In order to warm the goat cheese inside, he had to overcook the salmon.”

Like many viewers and even Colicchio himself, Chuy was astonished to be leaving so early (he had excelled in the previous episodes). On the phone this afternoon, he admitted that “it kind of sucked—one little thing or, in my case, one big thing can send you home.” Nevertheless, Chuy called the judges’ verdict “a perfectly fair decision.” Would he have done anything differently? “I would have seared a [salmon] filet with a crispy skin and a nice sauce.” His other problem was tending to individual packets of the salmon dish for the progressive dinner party (appetizers, main courses, and desserts in three different mansions in Highland Park).