Colicchio's Newest Eatery Shines

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio hasn't been completely distracted by his prime role in the hit series "Top Chef." In fact, he has converted one of his former New York City restaurants (Craftsteak) into Colicchio & Sons. And this New York Times reviewer generally raves about it.

First, some of the raves:

• "For the moment, anyway, Mr. Colicchio's (restaurant) is the must-try New York menu ... the food is terrifically good."


• The restaurant's pastry chef is "fearsomely talented."


• "... it's hard to go wrong with an appetizer of butter-poached oysters, off the menu."


• A chicken pot-au-feu "maintains the Escoffier standard while stepping into the modern age ..."

Now, the reviewer's caveats:

About the only misses are a perfectly cooked and defiantly under-seasoned fist of sirloin that is no match for the salsify, bacon and black garlic that come with it, and, for the same reason, a braised loup de mer with pork trotter and shallots cooked sweet and sour.

I find this mild criticism of Colicchio's restaurant ironic because a standard gripe of Colicchio's on "Top Chef" episodes is that one of the contestants hasn't "properly seasoned" a dish. (When he says that, Colicchio seems to be talking about salt and pepper.) So reading that prompted this snarky thought: "Physician, heal thyself."