KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Cooking enthusiasts are in for a treat tomorrow as HyppTV and BBC Lifestyle have brought in TV presenter and food writer Rachel Khoo for a special cooking demonstration at the Boulevard, Paradigm Mall.
The event will be from 2pm to 3pm and she will show you how she makes her coconut chocolate truffles.
Rachel is the star of the BBC produced television series, Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: Cosmopolitan Cook. About three years ago, Rachel debuted on television in the United Kingdom with her first television show, The Little Paris Kitchen where she charmed audiences as she cooked in her tiny home kitchen.
In the show, she demonstrated simple and approachable French recipes for the everyday cook, which helped shed French food’s image as being fussy and fancy.
The London-born Rachel has a Malaysian father while her mother is from Austria. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in art & design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London.
Lured by the exquisite pastries in Paris, she took up a pastry degree in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. After she graduated, she worked for a French family where she was the cook and nanny to the children.
Prior to her television show, she juggled different jobs teaching French patisserie and training chefs.
T
o date, she has a total of five cookbooks under her belt, and her latest titled Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook will be launched next February. The book will be based on the Kitchen Notebook television series and features more than 100 recipes, some from the show and 50 new ones.
Next year, she’ll be launching her own Youtube channel where she’ll be sharing recipes and practical tips, like how to fix your crème anglaise when it’s ruined. The channel also offers an interactive space for Rachel to communicate with her cooks, as they can comment and ask her questions, which she will answer through the videos.
In her own words:
I remember my first trip to Malaysia; it was very hot, humid and there was no air-conditioning. You have a bath and it’s a bucket with the water! I remember being at my granny’s and the wantan man will come with his bike and the cart in front. He’d call wantan and we’d come out running with our bowls.
The first dish I made was gingerbread with my mother. When I was six years old, I started my own bakery selling my cakes at 10 pence to my mother. I was closer to my Austrian side of my family and that’s why I did French patisserie rather than cuisine as I had a natural connection to baking.
In university, I worked as an assistant on food shoots and I was particularly interested in the job as a food stylist who makes the food look good. That was what I really wanted to get into as I like that creativity because I like details. With food, it’s very much about the details — the taste, texture, colour and the way you present it, so a lot of thought goes into food.
The way I start doing my cookbook is with research. Usually for me, that means I go out and meet people to hear their stories, taste their food and cook with them, whether it’s a granny or a Michelin-star chef. Actually I prefer the grannies to the Michelin star chefs, as they have the best stories and tips as they have been cooking for years in a home environment. I’m a home cook.
People say I’m a celebrity chef and I’m like... errrrr!! I’m not really a celebrity and okay, I have a chef background but who I write for is the starting out cook and it’s very much home cooking.
I write recipes, whether it’s for a cookbook or television shows. I also have two newspaper columns: the Mail on Saturday and Evening Standard. The ultimate compliment as a food writer is... “I cooked your recipe and I enjoyed it” or somebody to turn up to your cookbook signing with your cookbook and it’s got chocolate stains on it, it’s falling apart and used.
My next cookbook is going to have round corners! Nobody thinks about the corners but I do. I love details and I’m really involved with all my projects, whether it’s books, television or events. I’m very hands-on. That is why I don’t do a huge amount. You won’t see me doing 20 billion television shows and 40 cookbooks because it’s a one-woman show.
I have so many red lipsticks at home as I wear it all the time. For the first television series, I had the energy for it and the second television series, it was still okay. For the third television series, I could not be bothered to put red lipstick as I will have to reapply it all the time. The hair and makeup artist is myself and I’ve become really lazy.
It’s good to push yourself to experience different things. For instance, when The Little Paris Kitchen came out in the UK, it was a huge success and the cookbook became a bestseller. The first thing I did after that was I went to work at a restaurant in Sweden. It was in the middle of nowhere but it was highly regarded for foraging and the natural foods. I did a two-weeks experience, where I was the one scrubbing the floor and washing the dishes. Nobody knew who I was. I would get shouted by the chef as I had to catch trout and my trout was too big. It wasn’t something necessary for me. Nobody asked me to do it and there was no television show or nothing. For me as a food writer, it was to develop myself and learn new things.
In general, life is short and you should try new things out and experience things. You never stop learning. If I say, I’ve had enough and I don’t want to learn anymore, that’s it I’m finished. I have a real thirst for knowledge. It does not have to be food related and it could be art or music related as my passion is culture in general. I have a love for life and I don’t think it always has to come back to my work. If I get really bored of this job then I might do something else, but at this moment I really enjoy this job.
* Catch Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: Cosmopolitan Cook every Wednesday, 4.05pm and Thursday, 8pm on BBC Lifestyle (HyppTV Channel 620).
