Anyone who has eaten a plate lunch in Hawai'i knows that daikon root is an acquired taste. Or as Gene Villiatora put it after the judges bounced him from "Top Chef: New York," the Asian radish is something that either you love or hate, "so I guess they hated it."

Villiatora, a Hawai'i-born chef now living in Las Vegas, cooked his way through the seventh episode of the Bravo series, which began its current season in November. But Villiatora failed to move on Wednesday, after judges didn't like his whole, deep-fried fish and its sauce of tomatoes, basil and daikon.

Daikon, which is popular in Japan, is known for its pungent smell.

"I have no regrets," Villiatora said in an exit interview posted on the show's Web site. "I came into the competition thinking, I am going to do what I do. Chefs are known for their styles and cuisines. Maybe my style and my cuisine wasn't fit for this."

Unlike the majority of the contestants, the 33-year-old Villiatora has no formal culinary training. Instead, he's a Leilehua High School graduate who moved to Vegas after graduation in 1993. He started his cooking career as a dishwasher before learning to cook Italian, "basic French" and, while a sous chef at Roy's in Vegas for five years, Pacific Rim and Hawaiian fusion dishes.

"I am a creative chef," he said in his interview. "I am a wild, out-of-the-box type of chef. And that's my thing. My creativity is there but maybe my skill level is not."

Episodes for the series, now in its fifth season, were taped last summer. Villiatora was one of 1,500 chefs from Vegas who tried out for the show last spring

The actual competition was tougher than Villiatora expected. Each episode of "Top Chef" features two challenges for contestants. The first one tests basic abilities and the second is a more elaborate elimination event that is designed to test their cooking creativity.

"But I didn't get eliminated the first day," he said. "I never thought I would make it on the show. That alone I am happy with. Hopefully I made my mark on this competition."

Villiatora was one of 17 chefs who began the competition in November. Top prize is $100,000 seed money for a restaurant. Nine remain in contention.

"I can honestly say that leaving this competition has made me mature more as a chef," he said. "I think I made people think twice about me."

Married and a father of three, Villiatora left Roy's earlier this year to become a food consultant. He recently created a Pacific Rim menu for a new Disney restaurant and would someday like to open a restaurant in Hawai'i.

He still loves cooking, and especially the chaos and intensity of a kitchen on a busy, 300-meal Saturday night.

"That's all I know," he said. "That's all I want to do. If you got rid of cooking, period, I don't know what I would do."