A picnic with Alain

A Mercedes SUV pulls up at road's end next to an open field framed by lazy sycamores and California live oaks. Out jumps Alain Giraud, L.A.'s leading French chef (and until recently the chef at Bastide), followed by his wife, Catherine. They start unloading, lifting tables, coolers, ice buckets, cartons of plates and silverware over the fence. Baskets of food, piles of table linens, throw pillows, bunches of sunflowers and lavender. Hats, more tables, long baguettes, more baskets of food and a couple of big canvas folding chairs.

"Pour les grand-meres!" says Catherine -- for the grandmothers! "We never travel light." No, indeed -- at least not when they picnic. For picnicking is something like a religion to the Giraud family.

Not surprisingly, 45-year-old Alain Giraud has very particular ideas about the way a picnic should be. The food must be set up on tables, as a buffet, and then to eat it, you must sit on blankets on the grass. "It's a hybrid," he says, "a picnic-buffet. It's to be outside and be in a place where the kids can run and play and bring the dog." In the Girauds' case, that would be Olivia, a bouncy English sheepdog. If it weren't for the headband keeping Giraud's thick, shaggy, prematurely silver hair out of his eyes, they'd look suspiciously similar.

And the food? "The essence of the picnic is to be simple," Giraud philosophizes. "I think a good cheese is important. Good sandwich, and voila. Good company, a good day, a good river." Well, eighty-six the river. "You're outside, you're cool, you're having some food and boom -- where's the foie gras?"

In the end, it's that "where's the foie gras?" moment that trumps simplicity.

Giraud has put together this particular picnic in honor of Bastille Day, the 14th of July. If it seems he has gone over the top with his six-course menu, believe it or not, to him this is simple. Each component is brilliant picnic food. Marinated Cavaillon melon balls served in their rind. A sandwich that's like a nicoise salad in a roll and that actually improves by sitting overnight. Tomato-glazed veal paupiettes that are marvelous served cold. A tart that's gorgeous yet sturdy enough to transport.