Rachel Khoo facts for kids

Rachel Khoo, born on August 28, 1980, is a British chef, writer, and TV presenter. She has hosted many cooking shows on channels like BBC, Food Network, and Netflix. She became famous in 2012 for her cookbook and TV series called The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo.

Early Life and Education

Rachel Khoo was born in Croydon, South London. She has a younger brother named Michael. She went to primary school in Bromley.

Her father is Malaysian Chinese and moved to the UK from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, when he was 16. He met and married her mother, who is from Austria.

When Rachel was 12, her family moved to Bavaria, Germany, because of her father's job. They lived near Munich for four years. They returned to the UK when she was 16 and settled outside London. Rachel later studied art and design at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in London.

Rachel Khoo's Career

Starting Out in Paris

After university, Rachel worked in public relations for two years. She wanted an "adventure" and moved to Paris in 2006, even though she didn't know French. She took a three-month pastry course at Le Cordon Bleu, a famous cooking school.

While in Paris, she worked part-time as an au pair and sold perfume. After finishing her course, she worked at La Cocotte, a cookbook store and café. There, she taught baking classes and was the pastry chef.

First Cookbooks and TV Show

In 2010, Rachel got her first book deal for two French cookbooks. These books were later translated into English. She also worked briefly in Germany, helping with food events for Volkswagen.

Rachel then had an idea for a new English cookbook. To test her recipes, she opened a tiny restaurant in her Paris apartment. She cooked and served meals to just two people at a time. She used social media to tell people about her restaurant, and it quickly became very popular.

The BBC then asked her to create a TV series based on her cookbook idea. This show was called The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo. Her small restaurant closed before filming began. The series was filmed in her Paris kitchen and around the city. It started airing in the UK in March 2012 and later in other countries. The cookbook The Little Paris Kitchen also came out in 2012. It became a bestseller and was translated into many languages.

More Cookbooks and TV Shows

In 2013, Rachel released her second English cookbook, My Little French Kitchen. This book shared recipes from her travels across France.

In 2014, she filmed two new cooking series for BBC Worldwide: Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: London and Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook: Cosmopolitan Cook. Both shows were shown in the UK and worldwide. For Cosmopolitan Cook, she visited cities like Stockholm and Istanbul, cooking dishes inspired by her trips. Her cookbook Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook was released in 2015.

In 2015, Rachel filmed an episode of A Cook Abroad in Malaysia. She visited her father's family and explored Malaysian food. Later that year, her show Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook: Melbourne premiered in Australia.

In 2016, Rachel became a new judge on the Australian TV cooking competition My Kitchen Rules. She filmed the show while traveling around Australia. She also co-hosted Zumbo's Just Desserts in Sydney, where she was a judge alongside pastry chef Adriano Zumbo. This show later streamed on Netflix.

Recent Projects

Rachel's sixth cookbook, The Little Swedish Kitchen, was released in 2018. She also began filming her TV series My Swedish Kitchen in the Swedish countryside, featuring recipes from the book. This show premiered in 2019.

In 2021, Rachel Khoo joined Great British Menu as a new judge. In 2022, she was named a new judge for the seventh season of The Great Australian Bake Off, which aired in 2023. She returned as a judge for season eight of The Great Australian Bake Off in 2024.

In 2024, Rachel partnered with the British potato chip brand Kettle. She became the first female chef to work with them on a program to help aspiring female chefs. This program aims to highlight the achievements of women chefs in the British food industry.

Personal Life

Rachel lived in Paris for eight years before moving back to London in 2014. She then moved to Stockholm, Sweden, in 2016. She can speak English, French, German, and some Swedish.

In 2014, she got engaged to Swedish businessman Robert Wiktorin, and they married in 2015. They have three children, born in 2016, 2019, and 2022. Rachel says Paris is her favorite city for food. Her family on her mother's side is from Austria, and she spent summers visiting relatives there when she was a child.

In 2024, Rachel and her family moved to a seaside village near Malmö, Sweden. She also started a newsletter called Les Petits Pleasures, where she shares recipes and travel tips.

Television Shows