Colicchio & Sons

After nearly two weeks, I am finally becoming accustomed to the way things are done in the Colicchio & Sons kitchen. The first week was terrifying, because rather than gradually learning the line, I was tossed directly into the insanity known as dinner service. Service has always intimidated me because it's the area in which I have the least amount of experience, not to mention I consider myself to be incredibly slow when it comes to plating. The restaurant had been relatively busy already, but throw in a couple of three-star reviews (from the New York Times and Bloomberg), and it's a whole new kind of busy. At any rate, after plenty of mistakes I finally had an error-free evening. Now I'm enjoying two days off before I go back and do it all over again...

So far I've been trained on the "hot" station, which includes: cinnamon-raisin pain perdu, topped with grapefruit caramel, grapefruit segments, candied pine nuts, and served with rosemary ice cream; coconut cream-filled doughnuts, tossed in toasted coconut sugar, served with candied macadamia nuts, lime marmalade, and caramel ice cream; beignets, tossed in powdered sugar, served with apple butter, apple slices, bourbon panna cotta, a brandysnap tuile, and sour apple granita; zeppole, also tossed in powdered sugar, served with lemon curd and vanilla ice cream; banana-pecan upside-down cake, topped with rum toffee sauce, candied pecans, and served with banana sorbet and malted milk ice cream; and a chocolate-espresso tart, served with salted caramel, bittersweet chocolate parfait, citrus salad, and blood orange sorbet. All are beautiful, all are delicious.