Can we all just agree to stop talking about molecular gastronomy in 2010?

“I think molecular gastronomy is a terrible name,” Yelapa Playa Mexicana Restaurant Chef L.J. Wiley admits. He goes on to agree that Spain’s El Bulli’s chef Ferran Adrià, who made the scientific discipline synonymous with a style of cooking, created a new toolbox for chefs, but “you need to know how to use it in moderation.”

“We are not as self-pretentious as foodies in New York,” restaurant PR guy Dick Dace tells me.

And that’s true. Houstonians have grown up on great steakhouses, greasy yet divine Tex-Mex and fabulous and high-end Italian places. We even fell in love with fine French cooking way back in the late '80s. But we’ve never really embraced the food-as-science-experiment concept that swept Europe in the '90s.

“Houstonians are not going to sit and dissect everything they eat,” Wiley says.

And it’s not just Texans who have rejected avant-garde eateries like Randy Rucker’s Laid Back Manor and earlier Scott Tycer concepts. Atlanta’s Blais lasted six months and La Broche in Miami, an outpost of the well-regarded Madrid restaurant, was short-lived. There are some die-hard fans of this creative cooking, but there are more who are enjoying, often without even knowing, the food they are eating has more than a nod to science.

There’s a story of one local woman who bit into a sous vide steak and spit it out, claiming it tasted like pudding, which can happen. But Wiley, and other local chefs, do use sous vide, a sort of boil-and-bag technique that seals the meat in an airtight bag and cooks it slowly in water to break down the muscle fiber.

“All it’s doing is helping the meat reach a controlled temperature,” says Wiley, who used the technique on ribs before grilling them at Cullen’s Upscale American Grille. And most diners probably never knew.

“Houston is on the cusp of a big turnaround,” Wiley says. “Deep South comfort food, the kind I grew up on, but more playful.”

Wiley is now ensconced at Yelapa Playa Mexicana where the menu runs toward fresh seafood with a Mexican coastal twist. No sous vide steaks here, no food as theater, but the chef is still playing with a little science in the kitchen.

Isn’t that a touch of foam atop the Fuji apple, chorizo, grilled scallion and litchi pickle ceviche? Why, yes it is.

Not only that, but Wiley has wiled his way into hosting a Reality Dinner on Sundays starting Jan. 17, 2010, at Yelapa, which promises to have a few surprises.

“These dinners, featuring five to six courses, are going to be a different approach to eating, perhaps deconstructed, so that each flavor has its staring role and where one can construct the perfect bite a thousand different ways,” Wiley says. “The menus will feature the freshest produce available and will be prepared in a way that allows its freshness to shine.”

Hmmm, sounds like there might be a touch of molecular gastronomy lurking there. But nothing too frightening for Texans. As Alton Brown likes to say, a little chemistry in the kitchen is a good thing.