Page 24 - Valley Table - June-August 2024

Lna Bastide by Andrea Calstier
Northern Westchester goes haute with the arrival of Marseille-inspired cuisine. BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK
orth Salem is known for its equestrian estates, open land, and numerous parks. It traditionally isn’t famous for
fine dining, though—but that’s changing. Visit newly opened La Bastide, launched by husband-and-wife team Andrea Calstier and Elena Oliver, and you’ll see why
the area’s culinary scene has climbed several notches. The intimate restaurant’s limestone floor and leather tablecloths promise an extraordinary experience, and the food lives up to the chic surroundings.
You’ll want to start with one of La Bastide’s imaginative cocktails. They’re cleverly named after the areas from which locally famous horses originated. The Sancha, for example, is a nod to an
eponymous horse that came to North
Salem from Mexico. The cocktail features
tequila, lemon verbena, and cucumber and
is the most-requested drink. “It’s this nice,
spicy margarita with a verbena-salt rim,”
says Oliver. The equine ambience carries
through to the bar area, which features
horse drawings by a French artist.
After a bar drink, guests head downstairs
and can choose between a four- or six-
course tasting menu. (Cenadou Bistrot, on
the main floor opposite the bar—also run by
Calstier and Oliver—offers à la carte dishes.)
Expect to be immersed in the flavors of
Marseille, a seaside city in France’s southern region. “We’re both from there, so you’ll see in our dishes that most of the recipes and flavor profiles are going to be from the south of France and the Mediterranean,” says Oliver, who is La Bastide’s manager. “For a fish-forward dish, we’re going to use fennel and anise herbs. We also use pastis [an anise-flavored spirit] and make sauces with tomatoes and seasonal vegetables.”
Behind this approach is Calstier, whose extensive cooking skills give him the creativity to devise and execute transcendent dishes. After attending several culinary programs in Marseille, he worked with many of France’s leading chefs. He also found wonderful opportunities after relocating to the United States:
His first year, he worked with Daniel Boulud at the legendary chef’s Manhattan restaurant Daniel. In 2018, Calstier and Oliver opened Papilles in New York City’s East Village. Like La Bastide, it focused on a fine-dining tasting menu. Although the restaurant was a hit, the couple yearned for a more countrified setting (in fact, “la bastide” means “country house”). In 2022, they closed Papilles and headed north to the Hudson Valley.
La Bastide’s menus change with the seasons, crafted from whatever ingredients are at their peak. A recent
22 TheValleyTable | June–August2024
Dishes on the tasting menu, which starts with seasonal canapés (above), reflect Elena Oliver and Andrea Calstier's Marseilles heritage.
six-course extravaganza included an amuse-bouche of bouillabaisse, as well as a canapé Oliver calls “basically a crab cracker.” To better explain, it consists of a crunchy, cracker-like exterior filled with crabmeat, passionfruit, and tarragon flavoring. It’s topped with a small piece
of crab, a tarragon microgreen, and passionfruit coulis. Entrées included Maine lobster with creamy wild rice, baby cauliflower, and orange-blossom sauce. French cheeses, served tableside, are pure indulgence, but on this menu merely a precursor to dessert. For the sweet finale, there was the choice of ruby grapefruit with hibiscus and champagne, or La Bastide’s signature cœur de Guanaja chocolate. It’s a crêpe-like cookie cylinder flavored with chocolate from Guanaja, an island in the Caribbean. The cylinder is filled with freshly whipped goat cheese that’s enlivened with a touch of citrus. It’s finished off with a pillowy dollop of chocolate foam.
For Calstier and Oliver, saying goodbye to their city restaurant and beginning a new chapter in North Salem has felt like the right decision. “We really loved New York City, but we wanted more in terms of space,”
says Oliver. “We wanted to have the bistro, and better proximity to all of the suppliers and farmers.” Many of the ingredients used in La Bastide are sourced locally: The eggs come from nearby Staysail Farm, for instance, while Calstier relies on Stewart-Watson Farm, also in North Salem, for mushrooms, many of them exotic. The delicate greens that top many dishes are from the micro- farm Tiny Greens.
And given the care with which La Bastide’s dishes are created, it’s perhaps no surprise that the restaurant first opened on Valentine’s Day of this year. As Oliver says, “It’s a labor of love.”
La Bastide
721 Titicus Road, North Salem labastidebyac.com \ 914.485.1518
PHOTOS BY MAX BURKHALTER