Party like a Parisian: recipes + inspo

Ready, set, shop, clear the coffee table, pop the corks and cheer the Olympics, or anything else

Hello! Hello!

I hope you got a chance to look at Monday’s newsletter all about a spectacular apéro dinatoire that Paris friends of mine organized to mark the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in their hometown. I love what Sophie and Augustin did — it couldn’t have been more perfect for the occasion — but I also love the simpler version of this kind of party, the one that’s meant for anytime, even school nights.

Just to recap, an apéro dinatoire is a mash-up of cocktail hour (apéro/aperitif) and dinner. I always think of it as an indoor picnic, but today you might call it “girl dinner” with boys, too. (You can read all about it here, in my story for The New York Times — it’s a gift link.)

While it’s usually served on the coffee table, mine’s too small, so I always set up in the dining area of my Paris apartment. And although it may look like a traditional meal, it’s not — lots of things come out at once for an apéro dinatoire. Sometimes everything — from the proverbial soup to nuts — is on the table at the start.

Rules of the Game

There aren’t really any rules for this kind of meal, but there are expectations. My favorite is that no one expects anything homemade. Really. This is a party where creative shopping trumps kitchen chops. Of course, I always make a few things, but I do it because I want to, not because I must.

Even my Paris pals who are ace cooks buy oodles of things readymade for an apéro dinatoire, including gougères from Picard, the popular French frozen-food chain. (I have a friend who buys gougères frozen from Picard, reheats them and then, while they’re hot, brushes them with truffle oil and sometimes even tops them with little bits of gold leaf.)

Photo: Ellen Silverman for EVERYDAY DORIE

The idea is that the host shops, sets out platters, goes to the kitchen just to refill what’s needed, and everyone serves themselves. Since most of the food is meant to be nibbled with fingers, it doesn’t need much in the way of utensils and is easy to set down when something requires your full attention - like a lively conversation or the need to cheer on your team.

I Wish Someone Had Told Me

The first time I was invited to an apéro dinatoire, it was at my Paris neighbor’s place and he just said, “Come for drinks.” I had assumed we’d be together for about an hour and so I had a glass of champagne and a few slices of saucisson and looked forward to going out for dinner. But no. We all sat around the coffee table and our host kept bringing out platters of treats. First olives and nuts and chips, then a plate of charcuterie, then cheese, then small pastries. When we went upstairs to our apartment, it was after midnight and I’d learned a new way of having friends over for a meal.

My friend Emily Gaudichon, who writes the wonderful Substack newsletter, A Week in Paris, told me that this is her favorite way to entertain, saying: 

I lay everything on the coffee table and it’s such a fun way to host, especially with kids. You can really make the most of the gorgeous produce at the market (and the fun deli items) and no need to turn on the oven when it’s hot! The only problem is one night when I went to answer the door the dog ate all the smoked salmon and Parma ham in the 10 seconds my back was turned.

She sent along this picture – obviously not from the evening when the ham went missing.

Dish After Dish, Board After Board

Since the night will be long, I like to pretend that the meal has courses, even when it doesn’t, so I pace it. I set out olives, nuts, chips and savory crackers. When my friend Jane Bertch, founder of La Cuisine Paris cooking school and the author of The French Ingredient, is coming over, I like to make her favorite nibbles: oeuf mayo or deviled eggs, and cold radishes with soft butter and sea salt. (Actually what I like best is to go to Jane’s, since she’s an apéro dinatoire master.) Gougères, of course. Homemade, of course (recipe here). And a cake salé, a savory quickbread (recipe here), again homemade and again, like the gougères, easy because it’s made ahead and and be frozen.

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Assorted cheese and charcuterie // Hure pistachée from Maison Verot

Next up, the charcuterie and cheese boards. When I talked about apéro dinatoire with Moko Hirayama, who with her husband, Omar Koreitem, has one of my favorite restaurants in Paris, Mokonuts, she emphasized the bread: You need good bread and a lot of it, she said. I like to have different kinds of breads and crackers, too. I also like to add to the traditional charcuterie and cheese combo. I like having a little fish something – it could just be great sardines or other tinned fish, but I like to make salmon rillettes (again, a make-ahead/gift link to recipe here) and I love having a frittata on the table. (Click here for printable recipe.)

Photos: Ellen Silverman for EVERYDAY DORIE

By the time dessert comes around, it’s best to go from easy to easiest: cookies and ice cream.

Mokonuts cookies! Make Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies (Recipe here in the New York Times and in BAKING WITH DORIE)

And the Beat Goes On

These parties are great for watching the Olympics and the Paraolympics, which go on until August 11— tea parties are good too. And I’m looking forward to seeing what readers Sean Collins and Dany Bells do — they both said they wanted to have an Apero’lympics for the closing ceremony. Happily, these parties don’t have to wait until you’re watching LeBron James or Simone Biles compete for medals — you can have them any time in any season. I do. Just go shopping, clear the coffee table and tell some friends to come over.

And then, mark your calendars for August 12 — I’m going to launch a chat for everyone so we can all share our tea party, apéro dinotaire, and apero'lympics pics!

PS: I’m excited that Bebe Black Carminito, best known as Champagne and Cookies, has a book out September 3, The Curated Board: Inspired Platters and Spreads for Any Occasion. I think it could be a handbook for us apéro dinatoire lovers.

Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

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📚 You can find more recipes in my latest book Baking with Dorie.