The Revolutionary: Ludovic Lefebvre at Bastide

The last time I was in for a tasting menu, the chef was in the first stages of infatuation with a canister of liquid nitrogen, which expressed itself in things like frozen, egg-shaped capsules constructed from the foamed fat of a Jabugo ham, served with a single, gooey egg yolk and a scarlet curl of the ham, made from a special breed of acorn-fed Andalusian pigs — the ultimate ham and eggs. (I have never tasted the porky sweetness of great ham as intensely as I did in Lefebvre’s snowball.) A tiny, frozen cube of gazpacho was vivid enough to stand up to the pungent Roquefort-cheese broth glazing the bottom of a broad plate, a reversal of the traditional roles of soup and garnish. There was a course of chopped tuna belly seasoned with the Japanese seven-spice mixture shichimi,mounded on a sweet jelly tinted red with cabbage, and served with a melting, perfectly turned scoop of mustard ice cream, a sort of Asian twist on a dish made famous by Lefebvre’s Parisian mentor Passard.

When I had been eating for about an hour and a half, and it occurred to me that I had not seen a single plate of food that was warm, French langoustinesappeared, coated with fine, fried bread crumbs, on top of an orange-flavored risotto — a waiter came over with a silver spray bottle and misted what he claimed was Nehi orange soda over the dish. “All natural,” he said. “From North Carolina. Just orange peel and sugar.” After that came a slab of French sea bass poached in olive oil, sprinkled with tiny slivers of lemon flesh, and sauced with what tasted like a warm emulsion of mayonnaise and honey, then a beautifully poached fillet of rare beef with vanilla-laced mashed potatoes, a small bacon flan, a dusting of powdered green tea and a tiny lozenge of jellied ketchup, like all the flavors of a great American diner meal combined in one dish — strange, but compelling.

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Bastide

8475 Melrose Place
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: West Hollywood

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More About

• Ludovic Lefebvre
• Pierre Gagnaire
• Alain Passard
• Eating Out
• Main Dish Recipes

Sitting down to dinner at the revamped Bastide when you are expecting luxury-French cooking may be a little like thinking you have paid to see a Clint Eastwood movie and instead getting the new one from Tarantino. In the case of this restaurant, where the tasting menus run $135 a pop and it is really difficult to get out of the restaurant for much less than $300 a couple (with tax and tip) even if you take it easy with the wine, you are paying an awful lot for Lefebvre’s art. Your grandparents probably won’t like it. But brave new cuisine or no, carrot-litchi sorbets aside, there is the matter of the bitter-chocolate souffle, which is only perfect. Because when it comes to chocolate, even revolutionaries don’t want to mess around.

Bastide, 8475 Melrose Place, Los Angeles, (323) 651-0426. Open Tues.–Sat. 6–10 p.m. All major credit cards accepted. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $124–$222; chef’s menu $135.

Crave| By LUDOVIC LEFEBVRE and MARTIN BOOE | Regan Books | 268 pages | $50, hardcover

UPDATE: Lefebvre has moved on and Bastide itself is currently closed.