Welcome back to What’s Cooking, Metro’s food series, taking a peek inside the nation’s kitchens. This week, we’re at home with cook, author, and TV presenter Rachel Khoo, rifling through her kitchen in Sweden. Originally from Croydon, the 45-year-old is a judge on the Australian version of Bake Off, but is best known for opening the smallest restaurant in Paris, a supper club experience which inspired her cookbook, The Little Paris Kitchen, as well as a BBC series of the same name.
If you’ve ever wondered how someone could run a restaurant out of a 21-square-metre flat in Belleville, we’ve got the answer to that question, and so much more.
How did the smallest restaurant in Paris come about?
In her 20s, Khoo quit her job in graphic design to pursue a dream of training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She left London and moved with very little money and limited French. To make ends meet, she worked as everything from an au pair to a tour guide, an English teacher, and a perfume sales assistant. After completing her training, she began working on a cookbook and started a supper club in her flat to test out the recipes and avoid waste. There was one table and two chairs, as that’s all she had space for, and she was doing absolutely everything – cooking, serving, washing up, and then doing it all over again. She didn’t have a proper oven, so everything was being made in a tiny toaster oven, which looked like a mini air fryer. The guests were strangers, mostly found through word of mouth, and she served them three courses and wine for a suggested donation of about 20 euros. What they’d eat on the day was always a mystery to them, and the menu changed seasonally, based on what she could afford. It was a really interesting experience, and she has just written a memoir all about it, called The Smallest Restaurant in Paris.
Now, tell us a secret. What’s your most unhinged snack obsession?
A sandwich made with cold butter, cold brioche, cold Divine chocolate gold coins (leftover from Christmas) straight from the fridge, and a pinch of flaky salt. “I know how that sounds, but it’s my favourite kind of pain au chocolat. The butter has to be properly cold, almost waxy, the brioche has to be thick-sliced, and the chocolate has to be eaten straight from the fridge so it snaps.”
Which dish always transports you back to your childhood?
Käsespätzle. It’s proper Alpine comfort food, with soft egg noodles, loads of melted cheese, and caramelised onions on top. Her Oma (grandmother) made it in a way that she has never quite been able to replicate, despite many attempts. Her Oma was also responsible for her love of butter – she never skimped on it, and neither does Khoo.
Name one item that’s always in your fridge…
Umeboshi, Japanese salt-pickled plums. Khoo works from home, so lunch is usually last night’s leftovers reheated, and umeboshi is her secret weapon for making a lacklustre leftover bowl lively again. One umeboshi, torn over the top, and it’s a completely different thing – salty and sour, making your tongue tingle.
What about in your store cupboard?
Islands Chocolate 70% dark buttons, supposedly for baking, realistically for eating by the handful while standing at the counter. They also make the best chocolate mousse. Friday is now chocolate mousse day in her house, a tradition she started with her kids, and they make it every week. There is a recipe in the memoir for it.
And in the freezer?
The freezer is currently empty because it broke and she had to throw everything out, which felt like a small bereavement.
Is there anything you can’t resist splurging on at the supermarket?
Mariage Frères tea. When she worked at Printemps, the Parisian department store, selling perfume, she couldn’t afford it, but she used to sneak over to the tea counter on her break and sniff the tins and taste the odd sample. Her favourite is their Marco Polo Rouge, a fragrant, floral rooibos, which is also very good cold.
And what do you prefer to get the cheap own-brand version of?
Pickled things, generally. She has Felix syltlök — little Swedish pickled onions — in the fridge at all times, and they’re a supermarket brand and absolutely fine.
Finally, what’s been cooking lately?
Dishes she doesn’t have to think too much about, because she’s usually trying to squeeze in everything before the school pickup. Eggs are her go-to – oeufs en cocottes or eggs in pots. She made this in the Little Paris kitchen TV show – it’s a favourite from her au pair years to now. You can either make a bechamel or use seasoned crème fraîche. Add that to a small ramekin with the egg, then bake in a bain-marie. Serve with toasted buttered soldiers and crudité.
The Smallest Restaurant in Paris by Rachel Khoo (Maison Khoo, £18.99, hardback and ebook) is available now at all good bookshops.
