Two Michelin-starred French restaurants in New York will join forces for a special dinner commemorating Bastille Day on July 14. Chef Andrea Calstier of La Bastide, the Provençal restaurant in Westchester County, will cook beside Chef Mitsunobu Nagae in the kitchen at l’abeille, a Franco-Japanese restaurant in Tribeca. Guests can look forward to delicacies like foie gras crème brûlée with coffee onion ice cream and langoustine with white peach, kosho, and Royal Daurenki caviar. The 12-course tasting menu costs $295 per person, with reservations available through OpenTable.
I attended the Bastille Day collaboration between La Bastide and l’abeille last year, and it was one of my favorite meals of 2025. While that dinner took place at The Platform by James Beard, this year’s spectacle will unfold in l’abeille’s dining room—a far more elegant setting.
Chefs Nagae and Calstier share common ground in both their résumés and artistic approach. Both trained under French culinary royalty: Chef Nagae apprenticed under Joël Robuchon, while Chef Calstier honed his craft with Daniel Boulud. Both chefs also have a knack for blending impeccable classical technique with unexpected influences.
At l’abeille, Chef Nagae, who hails from Osaka, puts a distinctly Japanese spin on French classics. You’ll find fluke poached in nori-infused butter, or risotto with Koshihikari rice in place of Arborio. He plates foie gras and salads with all the precision and artistry of kaiseki, Japan’s most ceremonial cuisine.
Provence may anchor Chef Calstier’s cuisine, but the bounty of the Hudson Valley is the cornerstone of his larder. Rather than Périgord, his foie gras comes from farms in upstate New York. He sweetens his tartlet, a delicate dessert pastry, with caramel infused with Honeycrisp apples. The menu changes often to reflect the Hudson Valley’s sharply defined seasons—spring vegetables, summer stone fruit, autumn apples, and winter roots.
My Last Meal Before the Guillotine? Probably This
When you think about it, it’s funny to celebrate Bastille Day with a breathtakingly luxurious dinner. The peasants who stormed the Bastille weren’t exactly enamored with their truffle-eating, grand cru-swilling lords. When they toppled the Ancien Régime, many observers wondered if French cuisine would ever recover. But here we are, sitting down to a parade of foie gras, caviar, and Champagne on Bastille Day. Somewhere, Marie Antoinette’s severed head is smirking.
