Food blogger Anina Belle Giannini and her husband, chef Sebastien Giannini, are proof that you don’t need a vast trophy kitchen with miles of marble to produce amazing meals.
Two French gourmets, one petite kitchen. Here’s how they make it work.
By Jura Koncius
May 3, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
“Since we were used to small kitchens in France,” says Sebastien, 41, a native of Toulon, “we were not limited to think that because the kitchen is small, we would have to live small.”
A kitchen often serves as the heart of a home, whether it’s a spacious two-story addition on the back of a house or a corner in a studio apartment. The challenge when it’s small is that you have to be selective in determining what cooking equipment and dishes are essential to your lifestyle, then come up with a plan to organize and store it all. (For example, Julia Child’s genius pegboard solution.)
“Ruthlessly edit,” says Anina Belle, 41. And only stock one type of water goblet, coffee mug and wine glass — something you can use for red, white and champagne.
Growing up in the South of France, Sebastien learned to cook from his grandmother, who produced amazing four-course meals with the equivalent of a toaster oven in her small apartment kitchen. (The Gianninis still use her Mauviel copper and orange and red Le Creuset.) He started his culinary career as a teen at a Michelin-starred restaurant and worked at many others in places including Saint Tropez, Cannes and Courchevel. Eventually, he became an executive chef at luxury hotels in three countries. In 2021, Sebastien was hired by a local family to be their private chef.
Anina Belle, 41, whose mother is French Canadian, was a university exchange student and a fan of Peter Mayle’s books about the romance of life in the South of France. She arrived in Nice and quickly fell in love with the culture — and with Sebastien. (“He cooked an 11 course meal for me and my mom on our first date,” Anina Belle says.)
They lived in Nice and Antibes for eight years before their hotel careers took them to Canada, then to Washington in 2016. They got an apartment in Rosslyn with a tiny kitchen, where in 2018 she started lechefswife.com to reimagine Sebastien’s fancy recipes for home chefs. After their daughter was born, they started searching for a home in McLean, where they knew their budget meant they would be looking at smaller houses. “We traded size to stay close in to Washington and be near a French immersion school,” Anina Belle says.
They saw the potential in the 1970s-era 1,600 square-foot townhouse. Yes the kitchen was small, but in France, Anina Belle says, most kitchens are diminutive compared to those in America. “The kitchen was in a central location and felt homey.” she says. “The bay window spoke to us right away. We knew we would spend a lot of time in that spot at a bistro table.”
They changed out the appliances, choosing a stainless GE Profile induction stove, refrigerator and dishwasher, and painted the walls a warm beige and the louvered doors into the dining room French blue. The dark brown quartz counters are not what they would have chosen, but they are okay for now. Above the floor-to-ceiling bay window they hung a sign they ordered online: “La Cuisine du Chef Sebastien, McLean, Va. 2019.”
There are dashes of Riviera charm, including a basket bought at the Cours Saleya market in Nice, their well-used heirloom copper pans, a stack of French onion soup crocks and traditional string market bags.
Anina Belle produces her blog there, and her Instagram followers often thank her for “sharing a real kitchen” with them. She and Sebastien host live cooking classes on Zoom for Alliance Francaise of Washington with an iPad clipped onto a cupboard door.
The limited space has forced them to keep a carefully edited number of items in cabinets and shelves — as well as a limited selection of their hundreds of cookbooks. “Even though it’s a small kitchen, it’s a chef’s kitchen,” says Anina Belle, who works at Georgetown’s Four Seasons hotel as director of public relations. “We don’t have counter space for a coffee machine, so we use a stovetop Bialetti old school coffee maker. While we entertain a lot, we don’t have space for multiple sets of dishes.”
There is no garage for stocking non-perishables and cleaning supplies, and no pantry with organized staples and snacks. Every square inch must count.
“Our kids’ sippy cups, lunchboxes and bottles take up a lot of space so we have to get even more creative,” says Anina Belle. These items are organized by category in one cabinet above the sink. They don’t have room for a spice drawer, so they use repurposed Bonne Maman jam jars stacked on a shelf. Instead of cupboards filled with fancy serving pieces, they have a set of Duralex clear glass bowls that stack neatly and can be used as salad or mixing bowls.
They make baguettes almost every weekend with their children Valentina, 5, and Pierre, 2½, who also like to pick herbs — including lemon thyme, sage, cilantro and rosemary — from the raised-bed garden just outside that enviable kitchen window. The kids are learning to help with the family meals. Valentina sprinkles herbes de Provence and sea salt on roast chicken and Pierre attempts to knead dough. “We are so excited they are comfortable in the kitchen at a young age and they are curious about food,” Anina Belle says.
Sebastien and Anina Belle have maximized the space in their kitchen to hold what they need. “People shouldn’t say that because they have a small, unrenovated home they hesitate to invite people over,” says Anina Belle. “Both of our careers have been in luxury hotels. I don’t live in a luxury house, but I extend the same warmth and hospitality to people that come to our home.”
The couple enjoys hosting dinner parties for friends and Michelin-star chefs, kids included. They set the table for guests with the porcelain white plates they also use for family meals. (Anina Belle’s best dinner party tip: Load the dishwasher between courses or you won’t have any plates left for dessert.)
“If you are not in your dream home, don’t feel you can’t have people over or entertain,” she says. “You don’t need a show kitchen to cook well. The equipment and the ingredients you use and the love you put into the dish is all you need.”