For Rafael Nasr’s first national television appearance on the Food Network show “Alex vs. America,” the Houston chef knew he wanted to embrace the Lone Star State’s popular Tex-Mex cuisine.

Since running a food truck as a student at Texas Christian University nearly 12 years ago, Nasr has been cooking what he calls “Tex-Med,” or Texas-Mediterranean.

At his restaurant Craft Pita, which has two locations in Houston, most of the menu draws on the chef’s Lebanese roots, but the Tex-Med section features two dishes: Lebanese tacos and a pitadilla.

“It’s about the idea of, ‘What do Texans like best?’ We’re a taco culture,” Nasr said. “That goes hand in hand with what Lebanese and Middle Eastern people like. We just put it in a pita.”

Nasr didn’t get a chance to cook either dish in the showdown against celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli and two other competitors, but his mix of internationally inspired cuisine nearly earned him victory and a $10,000 prize.

Still, Nasr is celebrating his second-place finish by showcasing the two dishes he cooked for the Food Network Battle at West University’s Craft Pita restaurant, 5172 Buffalo Speedway.

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This ruling almost resulted in Nasr being thrown out of the showdown at the beginning.

The jury, which included Italian chef Gabriele Bertaccini and Israeli-American Einat Admony, criticized the election as being too easy.

But Nasr used more than a dozen ingredients, including a pomegranate vinaigrette, radishes, cabbage and fried pita chips, for this traditional Lebanese salad, which is traditionally labor-intensive.

In this part of the show, his competitors also outvoted him in choosing seafood instead of meat. They also wanted to use pickled lemons instead of pickled cucumbers, an ingredient Nasr often uses on the menu.

He was almost eliminated, but the judges said his grilled shrimp were cooked to perfection.

Because of the higher cost, Craft Pita doesn’t have seafood on the menu. But Nasr said he also wants to focus on the restaurant perfecting fewer dishes rather than offering an extensive menu.

The Fattoush salad with grilled shrimp is available all day.

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After overcoming the first challenge, Nasr failed again in his choice of ingredients.

The ingredients included pasta on rice selected by Guarnaschelli and Colatura di Alici, an Italian anchovy-based fish sauce.

Nasr joked that the celebrity chef had gone “too far west into the Mediterranean” with his focus on Italy.

Nasr, who had been strategizing and practicing dishes with his mother before the show, recalled that when he was a child, he barely talked for 30 seconds about a noodle dish his grandmother cooked.

In 45 minutes, he whipped up a Bolognese with ground beef and lamb, garnishing it with a little cinnamon for a sweet touch. He also wasn’t afraid to use anchovy sauce because it’s similar to Vietnamese fish sauce, which Nasr said he’s used to at Vietnamese restaurants in Houston.

The pappardelle pasta with the sauce was sprinkled with parmesan and pecorino cheese. He also added Aleppo pepper for a kick.

He also added garlic bread, which he said cost the judges points in his loss to Guarnaschelli.

While he used ciabatta on the show, in his restaurant he serves pita bread spread with garlic paste and parmesan.

The dish shows “that I am a Lebanese chef from the Middle East,” but he also wanted to make a reference to traditional Italian cuisine.

This pasta is only available during dinner times.