TV Review: The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo

Episode 2 was broadcast on BBC2 at 8.30pm last night.

Croydon-born cook and food writer Rachel Khoo is the star of this petite cooking show which celebrates the best of French cuisine.

This week, the Cordon Bleu-trained chef made cooking up chouquettes, oeufs en cocotte and beef bourguignon look easy as pie. Here was a different kitchen to what we’re used to from the Nigellas and Jamies of this world - une petite cuisine in the middle of bustling Paris, giving the programme a rustic French charm.

It would be easy to assume The Little Paris Kitchen is a tad too sweet for anyone with a loathing for anything dusted in icing sugar, but Khoo has a way with her audience.

Perhaps it’s the polka dot dresses, which remain miraculously stain-free throughout the programme, or perhaps it’s her innate talent for keeping her many shades of jewel-toned lipsticks picture perfect while sampling the fruits of her labour.

In any case, it was hard to dislike Khoo’s little Paris kitchen. The culinary highlight by far came in the form of her decadent chocolate lava cake, packed with a gooey salted caramel filling.

Now, the series may only be two episodes in, but we have a feeling Khoo may well be la belle de cuisine. Someone pass us a spoon.