Evelyn Garcia on Top Chef Houston episode 5

Houston barbecue royalty appeared on Top Chef Houston episode 5.

Brooke Williamson, Tom Colicchio, Greg Gaitlin, Erin Smith and Patrick Feges on Top Chef Houston episode 5

Greg Gatlin and Brooke Williamson on Top Chef Houston episode 5

Spoiler: I shrieked so loudly at one point of Top Chef Houston’s fifth episode that my ancient dog, drowsing on her bed, scrambled up and over to me in some alarm.

Well, of course I got worked up. The stakes were primal for this Texan, and for the city I call home. A Brisket Challenge was underway, set in the big gleaming smokeroom at the new J-Bar-M Barbecue.

Guest judge Greg Gatlin and 20-count-’em-20 of Houston’s best pitmasters had been summoned to help pass judgment on the contestants’ new-wave takes on this legendarily demanding cut of beef.

I wasn’t clear on why Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Brooke Williamson, a past Top Chef winner, was acting as the brisket master of ceremonies. Sure, she’s telegenic. She had her hair in modern-cowgirl French braids. And she was wearing a jean jacket, I guess to signify Texas. But she seemed an odd choice to explain that Houston chefs had been busy, in the age of our barbecue renaissance, coming up with multi-culti ideas like brisket fried rice, brisket handrolls and brisket pho.

Was Dawn Burrell busy that day? I wondered crankily.

The Houston-set season airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on Bravo.

Nevertheless, when Williamson led the 10 chefs toward the smokeroom with a “Follow me, I’ve got some cool things to show you,” I fell in line. Cool things, indeed, those mighty Moberg smokers that are the pride of this new EaDo barbecue palace. They hulked in rows like shiny, implacable gods.

During the course of the hour, these majestic tubular presences became characters in themselves. I’ve been lucky enough to inspect J-Bar-M’s smokers up close, and they inspire awe. Maybe even fear in a chef who hasn’t placed offerings inside one before.

J-Bar-M pitmaster Willow Villarreal, one of Houston’s foremost brisket adepts, was on hand to help shepherd the chefs though the process as they picked their briskets, trimmed them, seasoned them with a rub, and tucked them in for a long, slow smoke. He was his usual shy, softspoken presence, and I kept wishing the sound crew had miked him better to catch his pearls of wisdom.

Jackson’s admission that “Texas-style brisket is one of the most difficult things to properly accomplish” had me nodding in approval. That’s the proper respect, if you please.

It was not a respect shown to Texas Toast, a Quickfire Challenge sprung upon the 10 chefs when they returned from shopping for their barbecue-twist ingredients. When Tom Colicchio called Texas Toast “a classic barbecue side,” I blurted out, “no, it’s not.” There was grumbling. And unfortunate takes. When skilled baker Monique and modernist dude Buddha both decided to confect many-layered mille feuille versions, I wanted to utter a warning shout of “unclear on concept.”

It was a relief when the Quickfire was over and Nick, with his BLT Texas Toast, won the day. Three kinds of tomatoes, wilted-down greens, and pancetta with its fat stirred into a Colby Jack cheese spread? I’d eat that and ask for more. I’ve been pulling for Nick and his unaffected cooking, and it was nice to see him rewarded.

Back to the 10 briskets and the 10 Brisket Ideas. Buddha’s notion of a Boeuf Bourguignon caught my fancy. The rustic French original is a favorite dish of mine, and I was curious to watch his high-concept version take place around cubes of smoked brisket that he braised in a rich jus made from the trimmings.

Jackson’s scarpanocc pasta (now that was a new shape for me!) stuffed with brisket likewise grabbed my attention. He made fun of himself for grinding up the meat over which he had labored, as he is wont to do. When they cut to him meditating to calm his anxiety, I began to understand where his humor comes from: best to mock yourself before others do.

But a genuine joy in absurdity informs his humor, too. I find myself enjoying it more each week. I’ve almost forgotten I used to think of him as COVID Man.

Evelyn’s brisket curry idea made my heart sing. I can’t help rooting for our hometown hero, with her radiant smile and infectious laugh. She was jazzed to be able to show off a curry at last.

Having reveled in one of her multi-course pop-up dinners over the weekend, I was eager to see how she’d structure the curry dish. When she fussed over the brisket burnt-end crumble she was going to use as a finishing touch, I thought, yes! There are those layered textures you’re so good at.

And guess what? Those three dishes that most sparked my interest ended up as the top three of the challenge. I wanted to try them all. Buddha placed delicate raw beet petals on his bourguignon-style brisket, with a deep “bar-b-jus” as sauce, a beef-fat potato and mushrooms on the flanks, along with caramelized onion jam and a neat little slab of fire-roasted, double-smoked bacon on top.

When chef Ara Malekian of Harlem Road BBQ said, “I got all the little complexities of the flavor of a boeuf bourguignon,” I could almost taste them myself. Plus the smoke, of course.

Malekian got name-tagged by the graphics folks when he made this remark. I only wish all of the Houston pitmasters assembled in the J-Bar-M dining room had been treated thus. It was frustrating to get a passing glimpse of this one and a fleeting word from that one without the proper IDs.

But I had to admit it was a thrill to see so many faces from the city’s tight-knit barbecue community — and to reflect that 10 years ago, to assemble that many bright barbecue lights here would have been a challenge.

Jackson’s brisket-stuffed pasta ended up with bits of burnt ends and a cornbread crumble on top. He had made a sort of beurre rouge with a North Carolina Gold barbecue sauce, and his name for it — “beurre-becue sauce”—made me laugh out loud.

When it came to Evelyn’s brisket curry, though, the judges went a little insane. From its base of aromatic rice, to its slice of brisket, to its topknot of pickled relish and herbs, to its crumble of pistachios with fried garlic and burnt ends, they couldn’t quit talking about it. Padma raved over the curry base itself and its “smooth” spices, properly cooked down. Gail noted the bold flavor, the aromatics, the heat that didn’t “annihilate.”

“I want to tell her, just put me a pan of it in the back and let me go away with it,” said Greg Gatlin.

At this point I was jumping out of my skin. When Tom declared that on a menu, Evelyn’s curry would be a signature dish — “people will come for this, it’s like destination food”— I finally let myself believe she might win the night.

And she did. At which point I let out that shriek.

Everything after was anticlimax for me, if not for viewers less invested in the outcome. Ashleigh, whose floundering had become increasingly painful for me to watch, got sent home for an over-complicated collard-green soup in which a hard-to-eat hunk of blah brisket reposed. I felt badly for her. After being so lionized for her work in Asheville, this has to hurt.

I was surprised to see the steady Jo brought down by a pasta-and-brisket bowl that never came together. And I was not surprised to see the talented but tentative Monique laid low by a French-style steak plate with brisket as the centerpiece.

I switched off the show with Tom’s final remark to Evelyn ringing in my ears. “For 19 seasons and all the curries that have been attempted on the show, Padma always had issues with them.”

Alison Cook - a two-time James Beard Award winner for restaurant criticism and an M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing award recipient - has been reviewing restaurants and surveying the dining scene for the Houston Chronicle since 2002.

Sanger ISD Challenge Program kids are the so-called worst of the worst behaved. And it's here that they find a home. A place where they are listened to and respected.