Rachel Khoo: 'I don’t think cooking should be a boys’ club’

TV chef Rachel Khoo made her name with her little Paris kitchen. Now she is back in London, on a mission to teach us some Gallic know-how

TV chef Rachel Khoo in her little Paris kitchen that doubled as a restaurant Photo: GETTY

By Julia Llewellyn Smith

The Sunday Telegraph 13 Oct 2013

Rachel Khoo owes everything to Paris. The 33-year-old from Croydon made her name whipping up delectable cassoulets on two gas rings and scrumptious tartes tatins in the toaster oven of her minute kitchen in the picturesque Belleville district.

Her recent TV series, The Little Paris Kitchen, was a huge hit, the spin-off book a bestseller. But now Khoo is turning her back on the city – and the tiny kitchen – that made her name.

“I still have my flat in Paris, but I also rent somewhere soulless in London now,” she says, sitting in a central London hotel. “Paris is not good for business, it’s not international enough. France is very traditional, whereas London is really dynamic, people take risks.

“I have so many Parisian friends who’ve ended up in London because more’s happening. Paris is a lot slower. You can have an amazing lifestyle, it’s more laid-back but if you want something vibrant you have to be here. Paris has the charm, but London has the energy.”

By way of example, she compares the two countries’ Bake Off programmes. “The British one is the best: we have Paul and Mary judging, Mel and Sue presenting and they bring this humour to it. The French don’t have that same energy or fun – they take it a bit too seriously.”

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