There were no sausages on this menu which explored the East/West divide in Germany. Fellow foodie Caroline Hobkinson and I got cooking in her amazing Berlin kitchen. Dishing up two different menus (one East, one West). Each representing their relevant culinary history. Guests on arrival were assigned their sides for the nights. They bartered, they smuggled and some sneekily stole from the opposite side to get a taster of the forbidden food.

Off with the chef whites, on with the fake eye lashes, kitten heels and my 1950s outfit. Chef Khoo no longer it was Miss Khoo who took over the Chacha in Paris for the tastiest event in town.

Monday, the 13th July 2009 I created a 3 course dinner and a Kennedy cocktail to tantalize the Parisian tastebuds. Topped off with a cupcake pimping session and some swinging sixties & fifties sounds spun by DJ Sylvania.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Photography: Juan Diosdado.

No, I’m not referring to the band 3T from the nineties, although it would be quite fitting with the whole MJ saga going on. More to do with the fact the number 3 has been cropping up quite a lot recently.

I’m on the last leg of big events before the summer break with my debut on the Paris scene this Monday at the Chacha. After getting back from London with a great mash up dinner behind me and the 500 biscuits for the school of life event aswell. I was ready for a break, not a third event. Unfortunately that was not going to be an option. Recipes had to be tested and tasted for the dinner. A dj, photographer and assistants had to be found. PR and marketing malarky to do. Plus I’ve been running around all the vintage stores and markets looking for the perfect Jackie outfits for the three Kennedy hostesses.

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Dust off your blonde wig, your Jackie 0 sunglasses or your ‘too cool for school’ J.F.K. sixties suit. Miss Khoo is taking over the Chacha for the tastiest event in town.
For Monday 13th July Rachel Khoo has created a 3 course dinner and a Kennedy cocktail to tantalize your tastebuds. Top that all off with a cupcake pimping session and some swinging sixties & fifties sounds spun by DJ Sylvania. The whole of Paris will be there and who knows maybe the Kennedy’s might pop by.

40€ Cocktail + 3 course dinner (starter + main + dessert/cupcake session)

RSVP chacha@chachaclub.fr

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Enlevez vos lunettes de soleil Jackie O et vos costumes JFK années 60. Rachel Khoo va envahir le ChaCha pour la soirée le plus KHOOl de Paris.

Lundi 13 juillet, Mademoiselle Khoo va nous partager ses recettes chic et délicieuses lors d’un dîner – entrée, plat, dessert – et un “Kennedy cocktail” pour réveiller vos papilles. Tout ça avant un “cupcake pimping session” ou vous pouvez décorez vos propres cupcakes, le tout accompagné des sons des années 50 et 60 par DJ Sylvania.

Le tout Paris sera là, et, qui sait, même les Kennedys eux-même vont peut-être y faire un petit tour nous joindre.

40€ Cocktail + dîner [entrée, plat, dessert/ cupcakes]

RSVP  chacha@chachaclub.fr – réservation obligatoire

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Tuesday night I invited the lovely ladies who will be assisting me on Monday night for a dress rehearsal. I found myself styling clothes, hats and hair instead of food.  For dinner I rustled up this tart which just involved me seeing what I had in my fridge.  I was loosely inspired by what I had read in the Guardian at the weekend. And it so happened that the filling used three types of vegetables: carrots, beetroots and red onions. I managed to get these amazing red onions which were a cross between a large spring onion and a red one which were perfect for this tart.

I will let those of you who are coming this Monday be the judge whether I should stick to my day job up or whether I might have a new career as a fashion stylist

3T Tarte (three tones tarte)

10 carrots, peeled and roughly sliced into sticks
3 beetroots (raw not the cooked ones), peeled and chopped roughly
3 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped into wedges or 6 red onions type spring onion
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Olive oil
salt & pepper
Handful of fresh parsley

1 packet of good quality puff pastry (yes, I do cheat. Can’t be a slave to your kitchen all the time)

Preheat the oven to 180°c. Mix together all the vegetables and garlic in a roasting tray. Season and drizzle generously with olive oil. Roast until tender (about 40minutes). Roll out the puff pastry and line the tart. Tip all the vegetables into the tart and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the puff pastry is puffed up. To serve drizzle with a little more olive oil and garnish with parsley. You could also crumble some feta or goat’s cheese on top to.

On Wednesday 24th June 2009 I took over the Loft for another mouth-watering mash up. For the 5 course dinner I concocted a menu inspired by all things delicious in the garden.

T. Baas created a luscious table with his green garden illustrations and Jay-P accompanied the dinner with some toothsome tunes.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Pictures are taken by Kang Leong from Londoneater.com.

Where have I disappeared to? Well this kept me busy, then was the opening of this (where I’m now putting my culinary expertise to good use), I now also teach French pâtisserie classes regularly here too, plus testing loads of bagel and doughnut (spot the dougnuts in the photos I’ve been testing them out on people at every opportunity possible) recipes for a book and then the weather was briefly very summery in Paris so I fled from my computer to the park and soaked up some sunshine. Anyway I thought I’ld show some life signs (if you want to be kept up to date to the events I do join my facebook page or follow me on twitter).

One of the benefits of being a cook or as I class myself a Food creative is that you get invited to all the best parties. Plus as a girl you always get a load of marriage proposals (women+culinary skills = the magic formula for offers from the boys and the girls too!).  But as they say TANSTAAFL. Want your name to be on the guestlist? As a foodie that usually means delivering some delicious goods. So Tuesday night I began prepping some mini desserts  for 70 people that then carried on until 6pm the following day. Luckily I had the help of a lovely assistant in the afternoon. Don’t think I would have managed it all otherwise.  On the menu was:

Poached rhubarb with a rosemary panna cotta and mini candied strips of rhubarb

Mini cinammon spiced doughnuts

über chocolate cupcakies

and finally

Rose ricotta clouds with strawberries

One of my friends mentioned that the “mousse”  was like eating a cloud. I rather liked the description and have stuck with the name ever since.

When I start working on a menu I try to see whether there’s any possibility of making something which has a connection to the event. Last night so happened to be an underground take away concert (click on the link for info about the concept) by Beirut. I kind of took a quite literal sense with their name ‘Beirut’. Beirut being the capital of Lebanon. I started researching into Lebanese food. They use a lot of rosewater in their dishes, so I thought it would be great to incorporate it somehow into a dessert. French strawberries are in season so what a perfect combo. Rosewater and strawberries. I just needed something extra. I first thought of the classic whipped cream with a hint of rosewater but then ricotta came to mind. It would add that slightly “acidic/mild cream cheese” flavour giving the “cloud” just a little more depth in flavour. And that folks, is how I came up with the dessert.

All that hard work was worth the effort as I got to enjoy the once in a life time experience of seeing a band in such an intimate and unique venue.

Rose ricotta clouds with strawberries
serves 6

250g ricotta
200ml whipping cream
100g sugar
100ml rosewater

350g strawberries, chopped
20g sugar or to taste

Mix the strawberries with the sugar. Whip the cream and sugar to a stiff peak. Beat the ricotta with the rosewater and fold into the cream. Divide the strawberries into the serving glasses and spoon on the mousse. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

Über chocolate cupcakies

People kept on saying how much they loved the cupcakes at the party and I kept on saying they’re not cupcakes but brownies. By the end of the party I had given up on trying to “educate” the masses. So here are my brownie/cupcake hybrid.

I use my favourite brownie recipe minus the dlc cheesecake and then just spread a dark chocolate ganache on.

250g dark chocolate
250ml double cream

Chop up the chocolate finely. Bring the cream to a boil and then pour half over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for one minute before stirring. Stir until well mixed together. Pour the rest of the cream over and repeat the same procedure. Leave to cool for 30minutes before icing the cakes. Sprinkles optional.

After ‘khooking’ up a storm for the past several years in Paris I went back to my London roots with a mouth-watering “mash up” meal on

The unique dinner showcased a range of tasty ideas using food, music and the arts as forms of expression. For this scrumptious supper, I combined far Eastern flavours from PikPikZoo, Hong Kong based illustrators with a hint of more local flavour in the form of a musical mash up by Joseph Seresin.

Of course, I added my own creative touch to the 6-course dinner (paired with wine). Click here for menu.

The festive feast took place at the private dinner club The Loft.

The Loft is a private supper club and personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes, one of London’s innovative & revolutionary chefs (El Bulli trained & previous head chef of Bacchus, London). He will be opening his next restaurant, Viajante at the Bethnal Green Town Hall in 2010.

Joseph Seresin runs by day a bespoke creative studio whose ethos is to provide a tailored solution to your project with a range of creative services encompassing anything from brand identity through to one-off illustrated pieces. At night however he is known to put his creative talents to spinning tasty tunes in hip places from London to Ibiza.

PikPik Zoo are Hong Kong based design duo Zoe Lydia and Miss Kate. Touring the world (New York, London, Paris, Stockholm & Hong Kong) with their PikPik Panda character they’ve been spreading their philosophy of we care, we share.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Photos from event taken by Bronia Stewart.

I saw one of my favourite bands this week. I was slightly distracted during the concert when Fink started singing “Blueberry Pancakes”. My mind wandered to my blueberry pancake recipe. Would I add buttermilk to my mixture? How would I incorporate the blueberries? Buckwheat flour or plain flour? My “foodie daydream” didn’t last that long as the music was amazing and it put me back in the room quite quickly.

These pancakes are not the ones I would normally make for pancake day this tuesday (if you’re looking for a “classic” pancake day recipe, check out Delia’s). More something for breakfast/brunch or even a dessert. If you’re in London this Tuesday, check out The Great Spitalfields Pancake Race. Good luck to everyone who’s tossing pancakes on tuesday!

This recipe is taking part in this month’s Click photography event. Check out for other “flour” based photography.

Blueberry pancakes
serves 4

Pancake mixture
125g plain flour
125g buckwheat flour
2 tsp of baking powder

4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
250ml buttermilk (or 125ml milk/125ml yoghurt)
150g butter, melted (save a couple of tablespoons for frying the pancakes)

Blueberry mixture
250g blueberries (keep a handful for the garnish)
5 tbsp sugar (this may depend on how sweet your blueberries are)
150ml water
150g crème fraîche
Mint leaves (optional)

To make the blueberry mixture: throw all the blueberries (apart from a handful) into a pot with the sugar and water. Cook until the blueberries have softened and the sugar has dissolved. The water should have become syrupy and purple coloured. Now make the pancake batter. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well in the middle, crack the eggs and add the buttermilk. Mix until well combined. Add 3/4 of the blueberry mixture to the pancake batter. For a marbled effect swirl a knife through the mixture otherwise combine until you have a “blueberry” colour.

Heat the frying pan to a medium heat. Add the butter and then a spoonful of the mixture. Turn the pancake over when bubbles start appearing on the surface and the edge firms up. Roughly 2 minutes on each side. Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and some more of the blueberry mixture. Garnish with some fresh blueberries and mint.

Check out Daniel Egnéus, the illustrator’s website for more genius drawings.

The past month I’ve been going back to the future (or more like back to the 80s) for the party everyone in Paris is talking about (ok, slight exaggeration but there is certainly a buzz). I’m organising an 80s fancy dress party (think big shoulder pads, lace skirts and gloves…) with two other friends.

I’ve been put in charge of music. So for everyone coming tomorrow night, it’s my prerogative to put the records on
My black lacy 80s number with matching gloves is ready to go. Just need to put the frizzy hair in some scrunchies and I’m ready to dance at club tropicana.

Anyway, how could I organise a party and not make something for it? Now I can’t really remember 80s food (any reminders please let me know) but I do remember nobody cared about E numbers or food colourings. So why not make some real bright, in your face, iced biscuits? Unfortunately the French aren’t into food colouring and sprinkles like the English or Americans, so I was a bit limited in the decoration area. But if you do make them, the more over the top the better. Subtle is not the idea here.

Back to the 80s biscuits
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson’s butter cut biscuit’s recipe.

175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour (+ extra for dusting)
1 tsp of baking powder

For the decoration
300g icing sugar, sieved
Food colouring (the brighter the better)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
Couple of tbsp of nearly boiling water
Coloured sugar, sprinkles… anything loud and trashy
8 and 0 cookie cutters

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale, beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl combine the flour with the baking powder. Mix together the two. If the dough is too sticky and a bit more flour. Halve into two balls , flatten and wrap up in cling film. Chill for at least 30 mins (you can leave it in the fridge for a couple of days).

Preheat oven to 180°c. Dust surface with flour and roll out dough to about 5mm thickness. Cut numbers out and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 8-12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. When cool decorate with the most OVER TOP icing (mix together icing sugar, vanilla essence and water until you have a thick paste) and sprinkles you can find.

The past week my tastebuds have been suffering. I came down with a stonker of a cold which means I can’t taste anything (unless it’s super spicy). On top of that the rubbish ’summer’ weather in Paris and complicated French legal system (which is making my dream of setting up my own cake business almost impossible) has kind of been getting me down.

Things started looking up on Wednesday though when I received an email from Fluokids (très à la mode french clubbing/lifestyle movement) that I’ld won a ticket to Cabaret Sauvage! So Thursday night I donned my corset and red lipstick and trundled off to the Cabaret (heavily medicated and with a nose like Rudolph the rednose reindeer, went well with my lipstick). Spent the night rocking to the likes of The New Pony Club and Simian mobile disco. ‘Super cool’ as the French like to say.

The New Pony Club @ The Cabaret Sauvage

The whole cabaret thing got me thinking about making something decadent this week. I recently ate some Chocolate venus nipples from Rococo (amazing chocolate shop, crops up in ‘The Brodsky Touch’, the book I’m currently reading) when I was back in London. They were super delish but not quite like the ones I remember seeing in the Amadeus movie.

I did a bit of surfing and came across a couple of recipes (Italian one and Amadeus one). I tried both recipes but found the Amadeus one better (the chestnut/chocolate combination is great). I had an absolute disaster tempering the white chocolate (I don’t really like the stuff). It went all gloopy and was no good for dipping. But I think that comes down to the fact the only available white chocolate was the cheap kids stuff (which has a very sickly sweet taste). So I decided to make dark chocolate venus nipples (personally I prefer this version).

Capezzoli Di Venere (transl. Chocolate venus nipples)
adapted from Italian and Amadeus recipe

85g dark chocolate
230g chestnuts (pre cooked)
50g butter
50g caster sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
20g marzipan

For the chocolate coating:
250g dark chocolate

Melt chocolate over a bain-marie and allow to cool. Cream the butter, vanilla extract and sugar together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Blend chestnuts with butter mixture. Combine chocolate with chestnut mixture. Roll into balls; if mixture becomes too soft to shape, chill for several minutes. Refridgerate chestnut balls for 30mins.
Meanwhile make the marzipan nipples by rolling tiny pieces of marzipan into balls.
To coat, temper chocolate. Dip truffles in chocolate place on a wire wrack. Put a marzipan ‘nipple’ on the top of each truffle and leave to set. Store in an airtight container in fridge (better eaten at room temperature though, like all chocolate).