INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDERS MICHELLE GARBEE & CHRISTOPHE POTEAUX
Why is it a suited name for your restaurant ?
CP & MG: Because it represents France and Paris.
Because it represents the possibility of a better tomorrow.
Because it represents change and evolution, not just revolution.
Because our cuisine is about Paris and modern French cuisine and the influences that have melded with the current tastes and trends, producing what we now see being served all over Paris and the French region.
What is “modern French cuisine” and specifically “New Parisian” cuisine ?
CP & MG: After the revolutionary Nouvelle cuisine of the late 1970’s, Parisian cuisine has evolved toward a global approach of food. New generations of French chefs (Pierre Gagnaire and Alain Passard to mention only a few), have shaken the old standards by utilizing the techniques and savoir-faire of century-old classic French traditions, while mixing it up with World-wide ingredients. Twenty-first century Parisian chefs are now creating a cuisine with bold flavors but with light, fresh and crisp ingredients.
Is Bastille one of those expensive and stuffy French restaurant ?
CP & MG: Not at all. Bastille is all about creating a great relaxing wining and dining experience. Of course, if you want to impress a client or a date, we can create a sophisticated tasting menu. Michelle and I built a menu that is affordable and accessible to everyone.
What do you typically serve at Bastille ?
CP & MG: Our dishes are rooted in traditions and then we add our own personal twist. The flavors are predominately from the Mediterranean, with inclusions of Asian and American ingredients here and there. California is also a strong influence for both of us, since we both lived and worked on the West Coast for several years.
If you really want to experience the talent's of the chef's, you should try a few of the small plate offerings to sample a wide array of flavor combinations, then pick an entrée.
Our entrees are portioned to satisfy your appetite, but not to “stuff” you full so that you are unable to enjoy the fabulous desserts.
For the less adventurous palate, but still a satisfying evening, you could go for the "Bistro Classic" steak au poivre.
Does Bastille serve organic and/or all natural foods?
CP & MG: As much as we possibly can. We use mostly organic or all-natural farm-raised produce, poultry, meats and seafood. Our poultry is either naturally farm-raised in a free-range environment or certified organic. We use only natural beef, never raised with hormones or antobiotics. That’s very important to us!
For the seafood and fish, we like to use farm-raised products when we can get best quality and enviromental-friendly. We avoid buying non-sustainable wild caught fish. The oceans are being over fished and we have to think about it for the sake of the future generations.
Respecting the seasonality of ingredients helps also maintain quality and nutrition.
Buying locally saves energy and helps reduce green gas emission.
Do you have any prix-fix menus?
CP & MG: Actually we do! We offer a special Three-Courses prix-fix menu from 6 to 7:00pm for guests going to the Metrostage from Thursday to saturday. We offer a special Early week 3-courses prix-fix from Monday to Wednesday during our regular dinner hours.
There is also a Chefs' tasting menu, which is a multi-course menu. It features some of our favorite dishes in sequential order that will makes sense in terms of meal progression to enhance the pleasure of dining. We also include, for the less wine savy diner, the option of wine pairings for this menu: one - half glass of the appropriate wine is paired with each course.
What about your wine list? You seem very proud of it?
CP & MG: It’s a good solid wine list with old world and new world wines from the lesser known regions, such as great red wines from the Loire Valley, which is better known for its whites. Of course, we also so offer great Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Alsatian and Spanish wines, as well as, their new world varietal relatives. We have sampled all of the wines with our cuisine and we promise a match.
Our philosophy is simple: the wine has to be good enough to stand against our cuisine, but affordable enough so that everybody can enjoy them. And of course there is our beer selections too.
Michelle Garbee is a well-known pastry chef in the area. Isn’t it unusual to find such a talented pastry chef in a modest restaurant like Bastille?
CP & MG: Desserts are too often an afterthought. In Paris, they are as important as the rest of the meal and you are not finished with that meal until you have had dessert.
For those who know Michelle’s desserts from Aquarelle, they know her creations are bold, inventive and light. She is a confessed chocoholic (the same as Christophe) and enjoys finding exceptional flavor pairings with the one ingredient that no one can live without.
MG: My goal is to help customers understand that even if it is just a nibble from something shared, you have a sense of completion. Too often, desserts that are served in most places are so big and sweet that customers tend to avoid them.
Our mottos are: “less is more” and “We always have dessert!”
Bastille
Why the name Bastille?
CP: Because Bastille Day, July 14th 1789, is the most important day of French history! It was the day that people woke up and took a stand against a millennia of physical and mental oppression and to start the long process to regain freedom… Against adversity and despite the certainty of repression, the French people rose up to stop the tyranny and create hope for humanity’s future in France. Some say that the American colonies came to that realization thirteen years before and that the American Revolution inspired the French revolution. However, we do know that George Washington and the founding fathers of America were very moved by the writings of many of the eighteenth century French philosophers; Rousseau, Voltaire, Montaigne, Diderot… Their ideas being that the people in the western world should stand up for the rights and ideas of freedom.
