There's a particular kind of nostalgia that comes with good French cooking — the sort that conjures lazy lunches, clinking glasses, and the easy theatre of a proper bistro kitchen. As Bastille Day approaches this July, we've been getting reacquainted with those classics courtesy of Horsforth's much-loved neighbourhood bistro, Bavette.

Bavette is the work of ex-Culpeper Head Chef Sandy Jarvis and his husband, Restaurant Manager and Sommelier Clément Cousin, formerly of East London favourites Brawn and The Buxton. Since opening, the pair have built something special: a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a place among the Good Food Guide's favourite neighbourhood restaurants for 2025, and a spot in the National Restaurant Awards top 100 — no small feat for a bistro tucked away in Leeds' suburbs.

To mark the French holiday, Sandy has put together a quartet of his favourite seasonal recipes, designed for entertaining through Bastille Day and into the warmer months ahead. Whether you're hosting friends in the garden or planning the perfect summer date night in, these four dishes bring a little bistro magic home.

Onion Tartlette with Chicory

There's something deeply comforting about a good onion tart — the kind of unfussy, butter-laden classic you'd find on a zinc bar counter in any French village. Sandy's version takes its time, coaxing the onions slowly until they're sweet and soft, then sets them in a silky custard inside a crisp shortcrust shell. Light enough for a summer lunch, indulgent enough to feel like a proper start to the meal.

Serves: 1 large tart (18cm ring) or 4 small (6cm ring)

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

● 300g plain flour
● 125g butter, diced, cold
● 1 egg yolk
● 1 tbsp cold water

Ingredients for filling:

● 3 onions, sliced
● 6 sprigs thyme
● 75g butter
● 350ml d cream
● 2 yolks
● 1 egg

Steps for shortcrust pastry:

● Mix the flour and butter
● Add yolk and water
● Bring together to form dough, don’t overwork it
● Rest in the fridge in a flat round shape for 30 minutes
● Roll out on well floured work surface and line party ring (reserve extra pastry)
● Blind bake for 30 mins until lightly coloured
● Fill any holes with reserved pastry
● Egg wash and cook for 2 further mins

Steps for the filling:

● Sweat down onions very slowly in butter
● Cook until soft and translucent. Add a splash of water if they colour before they’re soft
● This should take 30 minutes
● Once soft, turn up the heat to colour and add thyme.
● Mix cream and eggs
● Add onions into cream and eggs and mix well
● Evenly fill tart case with the filling mixture
● Cook in oven 150C until light wobble, usually 25 mins
● Allow to lightly cool

Delicious with mustard heavy salad or chicory

Shellfish Bisque

Shellfish Bisque

Ask any French grandmother and she'll tell you a good bisque is built on patience — and on never wasting a shell. Sandy's recipe roasts langoustine or crab shells before slow-simmering them down into a deeply savoury stock, finished rich and silken with cream. Equally at home served as a soup on its own or spooned over mussels or white fish, it's coastal France in a bowl.

Serves: 8-10 bowls

Ingredients for the shellfish bisque:

● 1kg shells of langoustine or crab
● 2tbsp olive oil
● 2 onions diced
● 4 carrot cut in 1cm slices
● 1 fennel roughly chopped
● 1 bulb garlic in half
● 1tbsp coriander seeds
● 1tbsp fennel seeds
● 2tbsp tomato puree
● 50ml brandy
● 1L double cream

Steps for shellfish bisque:

● Heat oven to 180C
● Roast shells in oven for 25 mins
● Heat large casserole pan, add 2tbsp olive oil
● Sweat onions then add carrots and sweat further
● Repeat with fennel
● Add garlic and seeds to toast, then add tomato puree and cook out for 2 mins
● Add brandy and cook off the alcohol
● Cover with water and lightly simmer for 45 mins
● Skim off any scum/foam
● Pass through sieve (can get a stick blender in there to break things up if you like but not necessary)
● Reduce stock until rich and delicious
● Add equal amount of cream
● Bring to boil and let flavours mix together for 5 mins. Don’t reduce too much. Reduce to single cream thickness

Delicious as a soup on its own or a sauce for mussels or any white fish. Stock is freezable before cream added.

Bavette’s braised lamb shoulder & boulangère potatoes recipe

This is the dish for a long, lazy summer evening — lamb shoulder braised for hours until it falls apart, then pressed, sliced and pan-coloured to order, with a sharp, herby salsa verde cutting through the richness. Alongside it, a dish of boulangère potatoes, layered with sweet onions and bathed in stock until soft and golden. Slow food, properly done.

Serves: 8

Ingredients for braised lamb shoulder:

● Whole shoulder
● 1 bottle red wine
● 2L stock (beef / lamb / chicken)
● 1.5kg broad beans

Ingredients for salsa verde:

● 1 bunch basil
● 1 bunch tarragon
● 1 bunch mint
● 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
● 6 salted anchovies
● 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
● 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
● 100ml extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for boulangère potatoes: (recipe for a 10cm diameter dish)

● 3 onions
● 3 sprigs thyme
● 3 potatoes (desiree preferably)
● Couple cubes butter
● Splash stock (beef / lamb / chicken)

Steps for braised lamb shoulder:

● Heat oven to 220C
● Roast lamb in oven to get good colour for 10-20 mins
● Bring wine and stock to boil and cover the lamb
● Bring oven to 150C and cook for 4 hours
● When the lamb has cooled, roll it into a large sausage shape in clingfilm. Allow to cool and set in the fridge
● Reduce the braising liquor to rich broth
● Cut the lamb into discs 2m thick, remove the clingfilm, gently colour in the pan, reheat in oven
● Poach the pod broads beans, peas and/or other seasonal vegetables in broth until cooked

Steps for salsa verde:

● Finely chop all herbs and anchovies and mix together
● Add the mustard and olive oil
● Add the vinegar, little by little, stirring and tasting as you go

Steps for boulangère potatoes:

● Thinly slice onions, cook down slowly in veg oil until soft and gaining colour
● Thinly slice potatoes on mandolin
● Put layer of potatoes in a dish
● Add layer on onions
● Repeat and then add the final layer of potatoes
● Add butter and enough stock to just cover potatoes
● Bake in 150C oven for 45 mins

Bavette’s crème brûlée recipe
Serves: 6 large 200ml pots

Ingredients for the crème brûlée:

● 10x egg yolks
● 150g sugar
● 1 tsp of Vanilla pods
● 500 ml whipping cream
● 500ml double cream

Ingredients for the Rhubarb:

● Rhubarb 500g
● Sugar 500g
● Water 500ml

Steps for crème brûlée:

● Pour the double cream and whipped cream into a medium pan to boil
● Add the yolk and sugar
● Add the Vanilla
● Cook out until the Vanilla is suspended (or 78 degrees with a thermometer)
● Strain and cook in the oven at 95C until firm and wobbly (about 50mins)
● Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the top of the custard, and shake the dish to distribute it evenly
● Use a grill torch to heat the sugar on top until it has a crunch Steps for rhubarb topping:
● Equal weights of sugar and water in a pan, bring this to the boil
● Drop in the rhubarb cut in buttons
● Turn the heat off and leave to poach for 2-4 mins depending on thickness

Should retain it shape but give to the touch.

No French menu feels complete without it. Sandy's crème brûlée sticks faithfully to the classics — a rich vanilla custard, a sugar top cracked to order — but brings in poached rhubarb for a seasonal, English-garden note alongside the French tradition. The kind of dessert that needs no introduction, only a spoon.

So whether you're marking Bastille Day with a full spread or simply borrowing one dish for a summer evening, Sandy and Clément's recipes bring a little bit of Bavette — and a little bit of France — to your own table.

Read our review here: Fine Dining: French Chic At Bavette

Bavette 4-6 Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RJ

Wednesday - Saturday dinner, Friday - Sunday lunch

Bookings: bavettebistro.com