Wanna see a James Beard award semi-finalist in action, someone in the running for the best chef in Texas in 2023? Forgo the cozy dining room at Cochineal and choose the barstools across from the kitchen and watch chef Alexandra Gates. She’s a Zen master of calm precision as she and two helpers prepare Cochineal’s prix fixe meals. Fire is shooting up from the stove burners, waiters are rushing back and forth from the packed house, and Gates is purposefully creating the preset line-up of  dishes for the special chef’s menu. On the night we were there, we started with a couple of colorful, tasty, and large specialty cocktails (go for the Naked y Famoso: mezcal and aperol). Then  we ordered the bread, which came with sage salt and both French butter and olive oil infused with herbs from the garden out back. Then came the courses: nilgai antelope tartare with a delicate beet aioli, then a parsnip puree embracing a lightly fried pheasant meatball anointed with a dab of foie gras. The arrival of dishes was staggered perfectly to allow us to watch the show in the kitchen and anticipate the next courses. Over the evening we enjoyed wild-hunted Texas boar, then slow-cooked and very tender bison accompanied by a slice of lightly charred pear. After two hours (which flew by) we finished with dual chocolate mousses (one milk and the other dark). Later, we tried to figure out which dish was our favorite but ended up declaring a multi-way tie.