At La Bastide de Moustiers, the Day’s Produce is the Star of the Menu

Gardening cooks who find their way to this Provençal inn likely won’t want to leave.

horticulture Cook who find their fashion toLa Bastide de Moustiers , on the bound of the village of Moustiers - Ste.-Marie in southern France , most likely wo n’t want to leave . It is n’t just because of the legendary Provençal sun , or the awe - root on sight of the surrounding mountains , or even the scent of lavender that hangs in the midsummer air . No , it has much more to do with the pristine garden truck from the garden and nearby markets , and with the respect such bounty is given in the kitchen and the place of honor it has at the table .

La Bastide ’s owner , Alain Ducasse , is possibly the most celebrated chef in France at the moment , with restaurants in Paris and Monaco . But when Ducasse make up one’s mind to touch on this 17th century farmhouse and grow it into a country inn , he did something refreshingly dissimilar . What come out of the small kitchen is simple nation food for thought that oversee to be bumpkinly and refined at the same fourth dimension .

yield homage to the gardenAs with any kitchen worth its salt , the menu is base on local , seasonal food for thought . But here there ’s excess accent on garden products . repast often begin with not one but two courses of small vegetable ravisher , something unusual in France . The chef in kick of La Bastide ’s kitchen , a young Alsatian named Benoît Witz , has a gauzy helping hand . Under his signature , the green goods smoothen , not fancified nor obliterate under heavy sauces . This is real nutrient .

Every dayspring Witz tours the garden and confers with the gardener to see what ’s ready to harvest . Then Witz project the five - class menu he ’ll serve to dejeuner and dinner party Edgar Guest . On a mean solar day in late June , the dawn harvest lined up outside the kitchen door was smart with promise . consummate courgette and their blossoms , new potatoes with soft , see - through skin , tender peas , kinky carrots , ruddy beets , gobs of mâche , mesclun , and spinach sit hold back to be turned intovegetable tarts , or braise to a melt affectionateness ( seeBraised Young Vegetables ) , or brushed with olive oil and roasted with thyme and garlic .

Ducasse opened La Bastide in May of 1995 , and the gardens were begun the following year . The kitchen garden , or potager , is divided into two parts , a conventional , decorative orbit just off the inn ’s entrance courtyard and seeable from the east - facing suite , and a much large product garden , where most of the vegetable and soft fruits are develop . The wizard formal garden yield all the hallmarks of traditional French kitchen gardens — fussy - molded paths , a central well , seam devoted to vegetables , salads , and herbs , and flowers mixed in to brighten the prospect . Iron arch festoon with climb blush wine draw the central path , which lead to the well , an erstwhile basin fill up with water and used as it would have been for centuries — to provide warmer piddle for tender seedlings and new organ transplant . This is a garden that would have matte comfortable to medieval Frenchmen .

The formal potager serves principally as a beginning for herbs and flower , and as an bid place to wander and view examples of the many veg that are elicit in the half - Akka production garden . Even together , the two garden ca n’t supply all the vegetables and fruits needed for a kitchen that serves as many as 50 or 60 garden - orient meals a twenty-four hours . The finish is to get at least one course per repast from the garden . For the rest , Witz depends on the grocery at Sanary , 15 kilometers away .

Gardening with authenticityAltogether , almost 400 varieties of veg , herbs , and fruits are recruit at La Bastide . In keeping with the inn ’s topic of local , traditional flavors and rustic simplicity , all the veggie are open - cross-pollinate or heirloom varieties . There ’s an emphasis on Mediterranean and also short - season miscellany , for although this is the south of France , the frost - free season ’s surprisingly inadequate , running only from mid - May until mid - September .

One nurseryman , Patrick Simon , cares for the entire potager . He sweet-talk beautiful harvests from the ironic , stony filth using constitutive techniques . For plant food there ’s sheep and rabbit manure , turned in over winter . No sprays are used on the vegetables , not even France ’s dear Bordeaux mixture , a solution of copper sulfate and lime that ’s broadly considered an acceptably organic fungicide .

The one place Bordeaux smorgasbord is used is on the olive trees , which otherwise would acquit only shrunken , inedible yield . Later this year , for the first metre , La Bastide will serve well its own cured mordant olives . The olives , reap in belated November , then bring around for months in salt and water , will yield enough for a time of year ’s Charles Frederick Worth of aperitif snacks .

By mid - November , just day before La Bastide close for the winter , the garden is wait spare . freeze pour down the bid vegetable week ago . Hardy herbs , salad greens , Brussels spud , and a few onions brave the quiver . Simon is place up the plastic glasshouse in preparation for next year ’s seed starting . Tonight , the potager ’s only donation to the menu will be shining unripe prickly-seeded spinach leaves to accompany white potato gnocchi and roast farmhouse hare . The market at Sanary fill in the sleep — Florence fennel for the Pisces and vegetable soup , carrot and turnip and petite purple - super C artichokes for the cocotte , and caramelised pears for dessert .

In the morning , hoarfrost lays a cold , blurry blanket over the priming coat . At breakfast there ’s toasted sugar with two confitures — apricots fake to a sticky , dark thickness , and a translucent preserve of unripe tomato plant — sweet monitor of the season belong . Time to rest for the wintertime .

In and about Moustiers - Ste.-MarieLa Bastide de Moustiers(04360 Moustiers - Ste.-Marie , France ; tel . 011 - 33 - 4 - 92 - 70 - 47 - 47 ) is open February 2 through November 15 , 1998 . The restaurant opens March 15 . cookery lesson available by special arrangement . Moustiers is renowned for its clayware , sold everywhere in the Greenwich Village . A few klick away are theGorges du Verdon , France ’s “ Grand Canyon , ” offering spectacular views , hike , and kayaking .

Hostellerie de la Fuste , near Manosque ( 04210 Valensole , France ; tel . 011 - 33 - 4 - 92 - 72 - 05 - 95 ) also preserve a kitchen garden , and serve well a five - course of instruction garden carte .

Château d’Esparron de Verdon(04800 Esparron de Verdon , France ; tel . 011 - 33 - 4 - 92 - 77 - 12 - 05 ) offers bottom and breakfast in an ancient renovate castling located in the Parc Naturel du Verdon .

by Ruth Lively

from Kitchen Gardener Issue # 13

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