Most efficient way to load/create/serialize a texture and/or material object?

What is the performance wise most efficient way to create a texture, e.g. from byte[]/file.

Currently I am using

Code (CSharp):

1. var bytes   = TextureFunctions.LoadTexture(textureFileInfo);
2. var texture = new Texture2D(1, 1);
3. texture.LoadImage(bytes);

and I wonder if there is no better way to do this.

Is there a way to (de)serialize the resulting Material Object to avoid having to recreate it on the next game start?