Chris Gordon interviews Rachel Khoo

Our resident foodie Chris Gordon chats with British chef, writer and broadcaster Rachel Khoo.


First, congratulations on your second cookbook! With your background in art, I imagine you have quite a lot to do with the layout of your books? What’s that process like?

I really enjoy that part of creating a book. It all starts on the photo shoots where I work with a really talented team: David Loftus (photographer), John Hamilton (art director), Frankie Unsworth (food stylist) and Lydia Slater (prop stylist). We all work very hard in creating delicious food that will get people cooking. John and I will then discuss fonts, layouts, paper, illustrations and even rounded corners (which this cookbook has). It’s fantastic opportunity to be able to use my graphics/illustration background (I went to Art college) in the process.

I imagine your life to be filled with an endless journey of travel, tastings and creating… Is it as romantic as I imagine, or simply bloody hard work?

It’s bit of a mix. I feel very fortunate that I get to visit so many amazing countries, meet passionate foodies and discover loads of new flavours. But sometimes when you’re sitting at the airport for the fourth time in a week and your flight is delayed, you just wish you were at home.

You seem to have been influenced by many different nations. Do you have a favourite cuisine?

Ahhh… That’s very hard to say. I do love Malaysian food. I feel very much at home with the flavours (my Dad is Malaysian so I grew up with the cuisine at home) but I could say the same about Austrian, British and French (I lived in Paris for 8 years).

I’m very taken with your section on home cooked treats – everything from bread to delicious, really delicious, raw fig truffles. The latter are my new go-to favourite, when rolled in chocolate. And my kids are very pleased you have included an easy-as-pie caramel popcorn recipe. Do you have a favourite dish to impress your nearest and dearest?

I always try and tailor my menu for the situation/guest. For instance the duck ragu with crisp porridge wedges is a fantastic winter warmer dish. Perfect for cold nights in with a bunch of friends (everything can be made in advance and warmed up). Shepherdless pie is great for impressing both vegetarians and meat lovers. And for people who love a slice of cake than the pistachio and pomegranate cake is perfect (it’s not too sweet, has lovely dense and moist crumb which makes it keep really well).

All your girlfriends are coming over for dinner. With your latest wonderful cookbook in hand, what would you cook them?

I love the cauliflower stir fried rice (crunchy, fresh vibrant flavours - carb light) or the chicken salad with buttermilk dressing and chicken croutons. Equally the sticky chicken with Malaysian salad is good too especially as it has a spicy kick too it. To finish the Turkish coffee creams topped with a chocolate apricot and pistachio mendiants are great. It’s a small indulgent intense dessert.

Or, it’s been a busy week and all you want to do is curl up in your trackie pants and watch television… What are you eating?

Cheese on toast with homemade pickled chillies. You can find this recipe here.


Feeling hungry? You can download PDF versions of Rachel’s recipes for Cauliflower cheese burgers (found on pg. 117) here and for Chocolate bark (found on pg. 212) here.