How to Cook Splendid French Meals in Your Tiny French Rental

Renting an apartment in France? Lucky you!

A while back, a reader asked me a great question: How do you cook inspired, France-worthy food when your vacation rental has a teeny-tiny kitchen? It’s easy—because it’s France. I’ll tell you my go-to strategies.

Almost everything I’ve ever cooked in France has been prepared in a kitchen about this size. This one was in Normandy.

But first, I have a fun favor to ask: Are you heading to Versailles this summer? Or do you know someone who is?

The reason I ask: I just found out that my book, Everyday French Cooking: Modern French Cuisine Made Simple, is in the gift shop at the actual Palace of Versailles (!!). I would love to get a photo of my book living its best life in such a fancy spot. If you or a friend spot it, please snap a pic and send it my way! I’ll be so grateful!

Now, onto today’s post:

How to Cook in a Small French Kitchen

A great steak, ready to cook. Artisan pasta, and two lunchtime cold plates.

Many of the affordable-but-cute rentals I stay in when I travel in France have much smaller kitchens than I’m used to; in fact, sometimes, it’s just a two-burner cook-top, a microwave, a small sink, and a refrigerator. There’s rarely an oven. (Happily there’s sometimes a little dishwasher which is a greater gift than I ever imagined.)

And yet, I eat extraordinarily well whenever I rent my studio apartments, thanks to these six strategies:

1. Sauté-Deglaze-Serve with Great Meats from your Artisanal Butcher

Great artisanal butchers have such high-quality meat, you don’t need to do a whole lot to it to make it into a wonderful meal. Yes, that’s me, like a kid in a candy shop.

Artisanal butchers sell some of the best cuts of meat money can buy. Cook them up in 30-minute meals at their true-to-France best. Just sauté, deglaze, and serve. If you’ve got my French cookbook, you know exactly what that means—there’s a whole chapter on this any-night move. If not, no worries—this story and recipe break it down beautifully.

2. Lean on the Daily Produce Stands

Summer fruit in Menton. Note those melons! So sweet and so perfect for dessert with sweetened fromage blanc or ice cream.

Ditto for all the open-air markets with in-season fruits and veggies for great salads and simple, veggie sides (bring something home, sauté it in a great olive oil with some garlic or shallots and parsley, and that’s your side). Honestly, with food this fresh and this local and this good, the less you mess with it, the better. Now that’s convenience cooking!

Fragrant and ripe fresh fruits need nothing more than a little sugar (if needed) and a dollop of honey-sweetened fromage blanc—a rich fresh cheese—for a beautiful dessert.

3. Look for Artisan Pasta Makers

The best pasta I’ve had in my life was in Menton, France. It was made by an Italian pasta artisan. (Menton is the very last stop on the French Rivieria before you get to Italy.)

The French love pasta, too—and many towns have artisan pasta makers. That’s especially true the closer you get to Italy.

I’d go back to Menton just to buy this pasta again: It was Pasta Piemontaise with cooked veal, ham, herbs, and cheeses. Sublime and so easy to cook. The young pasta-maker had won a major prize from Italy’s slow-food association. He told me exactly how to prepare it (3 minutes in boiling water), and recommended serving it in a butter-sage sauce (but just letting the sage cook in the butter a few minutes to flavor it, then taking the leaves out). One year, this dish ranked among the five best meals I had in my seven weeks in Europe. It was that good. And it cost about 7 Euros for two generous servings.

4. Find Your Local Traiteur. Visit often.

I lean heavily on traiteurs for lunch. Bring home salads as well as pâtés, charcuterie, etc., and voilà: my French cold plate—a dish I never tire of because it changes every day.

To call traiteurs “delis” doesn’t quite do them justice—they’re less about sliced meats than they are about great regional specialties, from seafood salads on the Mediterranean to boules au picolat (Catalan meatballs) in the Roussillon and red-winey, rosemary-scented beef daubes in Provence. Oh—and roast chickens everywhere, twirling in their cases and making your mouth water from a block away. Lean on traiteurs when you’d rather hang out at the beach or romp around some Gallo-Roman ruins than cook.

The classic roast chicken in France, from a local traiteur. Sometimes, they’ll sell you a “demi-poulet.” A half roast-chicken. Perfect for two.

5. Serve a Cheese Course Every Single Day

Perfume for the gastronome: The wonderfully smelly cheese counter.

Each time you’re at the market, pick up a few choices and bring them home for a cheese course, at least once a day. Not sure how to serve one? I’ll tell you. (Hint: The cheese course is the easiest course ever.)

6. Above All, Never Bake (Unless It’s Just What You Do.)

Really—gorgeous pastries aren’t that rare in the U.S. But truly amazing supermarket desserts? It just burns me up that we can’t get something like these! (And this photo shows only about one third of the selection.)

Seriously—why would you bother baking when you can get the best bread and desserts in the world on just about every block? On another note, I’ve never been served a homemade dessert in a French home. But you do you—if you love baking and want to try your hand at it, in France, give it a go (just be sure to rent an apartment with an oven, because so many will not have one!).

When I'm not feeling the need for a pastry-shop indulgence, sometimes I go for one of those shockingly good supermarket desserts. (I’ve written about some of my favorites, here).

Your Turn!

What have you cooked (or, let’s be honest, assembled) in your tiny kitchen in France? Do tell!