Bastide’s troops march on

Diners about town have been noticing a phenomenon that some are characterizing as the “Bastide diaspora.” Since the exit of chef Alain Giraud, nearly a dozen former employees have also moved on, and clusters of alums are showing up here and there.

Among the departed? Former general manager Donato Poto, sous-chef Kevin M. Meehan, sommelier Christophe Rolland, assistant sommelier Drew Langley, pastry chef Koa Duncan, pastry cook Mario Ortiz and other assorted chefs and line cooks.

Where have all the Bastide alums gone?

Poto has partnered with former Water Grill chef Michael Cimarusti. The two plan to open a seafood restaurant called Providence this spring in the old Patina space on Melrose Avenue. Cimarusti will head up the kitchen, with Poto responsible for the front of the house.

Meehan is now executive chef at Citrine, where he has several other Bastide exes -- among them former Bastide chef de partie Jeremy Strubel, now Meehan’s sous-chef -- working under him; Langley is the restaurant’s new wine director.

“For me to take on this project, to take over Citrine and do what I wanted to do, I needed a lot of manpower,” says Meehan. “And there’s a lot of great talent in that restaurant [Bastide].”

Meanwhile, Ortiz is pastry chef over at Geisha House in Hollywood while Duncan considers several options.

The diaspora has reached all the way up to Northern California: Ex-sommelier Rolland moved up to San Rafael to become North American representative for Leroy, the prestigious wine producer in Burgundy.

Despite the scattering, Meehan insists there is an unimpeachable bond among the troops.

“At Bastide, there’s a huge sense of camaraderie,” he says. “There has always been. We played foosball or poker together, and soccer. It’s like a fraternity.”

“Alain helped me out a lot with this project,” he adds. “So did Ludovic [Lefebvre, who succeeded Giraud as executive chef at Bastide]. The gang is still in touch.”

Leslee Komaiko

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Beard awards on the calendar

After months of upheaval at the James Beard Foundation -- its former president, Leonard F. Pickell Jr., pleaded guilty last month to stealing more than $50,000 from the organization -- the question on everyone’s mind has been: Will the show go on?

On Tuesday, the Beard Foundation announced that it will. The 16th annual James Beard Foundation Awards with its gala dinner will be held May 2 at the New York Marriott Marquis, and the Journalism Awards dinner will be held April 29 at the Grand Hyatt.

At a meeting Monday night that included reps from the board of trustees, the interim transition team (including chef Thomas Keller) and the Awards Board of Governors, it was decided that the Awards Board of Governors will now administer the awards independently of the board of trustees (on whose watch the financial scandal occurred). The annual awards are a kind of Oscars for food professionals, recognizing restaurants, chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, cookbook authors, food journalists and others. “The change in administration means the awards can proceed with transparency and complete independence from any of the foundation’s financial dealings,” said Andrea Clurfeld, a restaurant critic and food editor at the Asbury Park Press, who represented the Restaurant Awards Committee at Monday’s meeting.

-- Laurie Winer