The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo
The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo is a television cookery programme starring food writer and cook Rachel Khoo which first broadcast on BBC Two in the UK in March–April 2012. The show follows Khoo from her tiny kitchen in Paris, France, as she introduces the audience to "French food cooked simply, like Parisians do at home".
| The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Cooking |
| Directed by | Ed St Giles |
| Presented by | Rachel Khoo |
| Theme music composer | Samuel Sim |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Production company | Plum Pictures |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 19 March – 23 April 2012 |
| Related | |
| Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: Cosmopolitan Cook; Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: London | |
Description
Rachel Khoo, alumna of Le Cordon Bleu, welcomes the audience to the two-person smallest restaurant in Paris, cooks a number of classic French dishes in her tiny flat in Belleville, Paris, and introduces the viewer to "French food the way Parisians cook and eat it".
Reception
John Crace of The Guardian described the first episode of The Little Paris Kitchen as "an uneasy mishmash: the format was, too; like so many other cooking programmes, it tried to cram in a bit of forced travelogue to add local colour, with hints of cultural appropriation".[1] In another review of the first episode, Christopher Hooten wrote: "Khoo’s girl-in-the-big-city charm and hearty recipes make this series difficult to dislike", and remarked the show spliced recipes with images of Paris.[2]
Episodes
| No. | Title | Original air date | Viewers (million) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Episode 1" | 19 March 2012 | 1.69[3] | |
|
Rachel introduces us to her eponymous kitchen and her apartment's two-cover restaurant by making her version of the French classic croque madame. She visits the Moroccan part of Paris's oldest food market in search of mint and explores the rooftop of the Grand Palais to source local honey created by Parisian bees for her madeleines. | ||||
| 2 | "Episode 2" | 26 March 2012 | 1.32[4] | |
|
Rachel meets Christophe Vasseur, a master Parisian baker, and learns the secret of shaping baguettes. She puts a British twist on her oeufs en cocotte (eggs in pots) by serving them in teacups and creates a chocolate pudding, filled with salted caramel. | ||||
| 3 | "Episode 3" | 2 April 2012 | 1.33[5] | |
|
Rachel puts her twist on cassoulet, the classic dish from the south-west of France, by transforming it into a soup, and makes the ultimate chocolate mousse. She takes a trip to an award-winning Parisian cheese shop, one of 400 in Paris, and visits Rungis, the world's largest wholesale food market, to produce steak tartare for a group of demanding French butchers. | ||||
| 4 | "Episode 4" | 9 April 2012 | 1.16[6] | |
|
Rachel cooks sticky chicken, coated with a delicate lavender and lemon glaze. She also displays her pâtisserie skills with a batch of zesty grapefruit and pepper meringue tartlets. In the style of a true Parisian, Rachel take a trip to the French seaside town of Trouville, where a local fisherman treats her to succulent scallops in a creamy mustard mayonnaise. | ||||
| 5 | "Episode 5" | 16 April 2012 | 1.43[7] | |
|
Rachel visits one of Paris's finest street markets and encounters Joel Thiebault, the French 'king of vegetables'. Joel sells to the world's top chefs and today Rachel is looking for succulent beetroot for her superb Puy lentil, beetroot and goat's cheese salad. Rachel serves the lightest of desserts - îles flottantes - where delicately poached meringues drift on the creamiest vanilla custard. She samples exquisite Normandy oysters at a stall offering five succulent varieties, then prepares gourmet garnishes with a Parisian chef. | ||||
| 6 | "Episode 6" | 23 April 2012 | 1.27[8] | |
|
Rachel serves a classic quiche lorraine with a rich creamy filling and melt-in-the-mouth pastry. She visits a Vietnamese restaurant to explore the latest Asian food trends that are finding fans in Paris then fulfils an all-time desire by turning her hand to crêpe making with a Parisian street vendor, to produce the city's most famous and favourite snack. And finally, she serves up her twist on beef wellington - tender venison surrounded by caramelized onions and Dijon mustard inside parcels of golden flaky pastry. | ||||
References
- Crace, John (20 March 2012). "TV review: The Little Paris Kitchen; The Anti-Social Network". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
- Hooten, Christopher (19 March 2012). "The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo added 2 tsp of whimsy". Metro. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
- Lee, Ben (20 March 2012). "'Scott & Bailey' episode two draws 6.3m on ITV1". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- Lee, Ben (27 March 2012). "'Skins' series six bows out with 270,000 viewers on E4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- Lee, Ben (3 April 2012). "'Game of Thrones' season two premieres to 520,000 on Sky Atlantic". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- Millar, Paul (10 April 2012). "'Silent Witness' still comfortably ahead of 'Scott & Bailey'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- Lee, Ben (17 April 2012). "'Game of Thrones' episode three drops below 400,000 viewers". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- Lee, Ben (24 April 2012). "'Made in Chelsea' rises to 460,000 on E4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 November 2014.