How to Host a Dinner Party in a Small Apartment

Every guide to hosting assumes a dining table, counter space and an oven you can dedicate to one dish. Plenty of good hosting happens without any of the three.

Solve the surfaces first

Small-space hosting is a surfaces problem, not a cooking problem. Work out where six people will put a glass down before you decide what to cook.

• Go vertical. A tiered stand triples serving area inside one footprint. It is the single most useful object in a small kitchen.
• Use the sink and the stovetop. A large chopping board across either one is a temporary counter. This is the oldest trick in a small kitchen and it works.
• Move drinks out of the kitchen. A tray on a side table or a bookshelf becomes the bar. It gets people out of the kitchen and frees the counter entirely.
• Trays as individual surfaces. An ottoman tray turns a soft surface into a table, and one per pair of guests turns a sofa into seating that works.

Cook one thing, in one dish

One oven and no counter means one oven dish that serves everything: a braise, a tray bake, a baked pasta, a whole roast chicken with the vegetables under it. It uses one shelf, it needs no plating, and it goes from oven to table in the dish it cooked in.

Pair it with a cold starter made entirely in advance — a board is ideal here because it requires no kitchen at all at serving time — and something bought for dessert.

Seating, honestly

Six people do not need six matching chairs. A desk chair, a stool and the edge of a bed have all served at good dinners. What they do need is somewhere to set a glass within reach, because holding a drink and a plate and eating is not possible.

If people are eating on laps, serve food that needs only a fork. A board, a bowl of something substantial, bread. Anything requiring a knife and a sawing motion does not work on a lap.

The apartment-specific things

• Tell your neighbors if it will run late. Thirty seconds of courtesy prevents a whole category of problem.
• Deal with the smell. A small apartment holds cooking smells. Open a window an hour before and do not fry fish.
• Clear the entryway. Six people's coats and shoes will otherwise become the first thing anyone sees.
• Stage the washing up out of sight. A stacked sink is fine; a stacked sink in the room everyone is sitting in is not. Load the dishwasher as you go or hide everything.

The general timeline in how to host a dinner party still applies. It just matters more here, because there is no space to absorb a mistake.