Externship at August

I’m back! It has been an interesting couple of months and I want to catch everyone up to speed.
After the Christmas break, I started my externship at Chef John Besh's Restaurant August in New Orleans, La. If you haven't heard of it, you can check it out here:

http://www.restaurantaugust.com/restaurantandbar.html

It was a great experience. I worked long and tiring days but I got a lot of insight on the world of a five-star restaurant. I worked along side Jennifer Loos, the Pastry Sous Chef . We created all of the desserts for service as well as all of the banquets, including a dessert banquet of the Queen of Mardi Gras.
I had the opportunity there to make every component of our desserts. I made more ice cream bases and churned more ice cream than I will likely eat in a lifetime. But it was a great first experience. I conquered a lot of fears and learned to share my kitchen with line cooks and runners and being in Chef Besh’s kitchen, a few TV crews. Tom Colicchio and the cast of Top Chef New York even stopped in for dinner one night.
One of our most popular desserts at August was the Napoleon of Nougatine with Valhrona chocolate bavarois and salted toffee ice cream. The dessert was so popular I made salted toffee ice cream everyday.
The tart pictured is a buttermilk custard with blueberries. It was for a bridal brunch banquet.
The chocolate towers are part of the Trio of Chocolate dessert. It is a bittersweet pate incasing a milk chocolate Bavarian.