Chef Rachel Khoo's ultimate recommendations for foodies to experience Paris like a local

Pretentious and snobby are perhaps stereotypes and misconceptions you’ve heard around French cuisine, often associated with expensive fine dining - but this attitude appears to be changing among us Brits as we look to French home cooking for inspiration.

"In essence, French cuisine is about celebrating the seasons in a simple way,” TV chef, best-selling author and Kettle Chips’ first female chef, Rachel Khoo, told Indy100 on why she thinks there is a growing curiosity for French gastronomy.

“People want simple recipes. If you look at the things on TikTok and Instagram, they're all 10 minutes or two ingredients. People want simple but good tasting, and that's what the history of French food is, and that's what I learned when I moved to Paris.”

What's more, there has been an increased interest in the cuisine in recent years as British supermarket Waitrose reported last year (as per The Times), online searches on the site are “booming” with French onion soup recipes up 400 per cent compared with the same period in 2023, while searches for beef bourguignon were up 99 per cent and ratatouille were up 106 per cent.

Khoo’s comments come as she and Kettle Chips have launched two new French flavours, Honey Dijon Mustard and Brie & Caramelised Onion.

Kettle Chips launches brand-new French Flavours, Honey Dijon Mustard and Brie & Caramelised Onion, made with KETTLE® Chef and best-selling author Rachel Khoo (pictured above).

Now with social media, French people can share their home cooking recipes directly to a global audience. For instance, on Instagram, there are over 2.2 million posts hashtag #frenchfood, while on TikTok, there are nearly 60,000 videos with this hashtag too.

“You don't actually have to go to France to experience France, and in a way. So, I think that is breaking down the barriers of that misconception,” Khoo explained. “…especially because you can follow all these French influencers and content creators who are like, ‘This is how I cook at home with my grand mère,’ whereas, beforehand, what we mainly saw in the media was this ode cuisine, Michelin-starred French food.”

Khoo’s love of French cuisine began when she moved to Paris in 2006, but growing up in Croydon, South London, as a child of immigrant parents, the 44-year-old had an appreciation of various cuisines from around the world.

“My dad is from Malaysia, my mom is from Austria, and so it was a very kind of Malaysian, Austrian, British, a real hodgepodge of different dishes. So, I've always been very curious about different cuisines.”

It was during her first job as an au pair for a French family in the City of Lights that she fondly recalled the “sensory” and “human” experience of visiting a French market for the first time.

“The fact that you go to the market and you can see the seasons changing, you can really smell the food you like. I think sometimes in the supermarket, it's missing that kind of sensory experience, but also that human experience, because you chat to the local veg guy, ‘How's your week been going?’ A little pleasantry, so it's very civil.”

At this time, Khoo, who previously worked in PR for a luxury fashion brand, took a three-month patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu to hone her craft. The chef later began running a two-person restaurant, the smallest in Paris, from her "tiny" 21m² apartment located in the Belleville district - La petite cuisine à Paris (The little Paris kitchen).

Running this private dining experience would go on to inspire Khoo’s 2012 cookbook The Little Paris Kitchen and the BBC 2 series The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo.

“I was very naïve and just opening my home, and random people coming up,” Khoo said, reflecting on this time in her life, 13 years later.

“As a parent now, I think my mum and dad must have thought, ‘Oh my goodness, what is she doing? That’s why I also always did it at lunchtime rather than in the evening. I felt like it was more just a safety thing, but I would Google the people more, check them out on social media.

She continued: “When people came around for lunch, and I was doing my pop-up, nobody had their phone out.

“I had a little guestbook, and they would write in my guestbook. I still have my guest book, and I would print out the menu, put the menu down for the day. Some people drew little pictures, and that was it - there was still an old school charm to it.”

Back then, social media was still in its infancy compared to today, where it seems there are more platforms than ever to post on, combined with the virality and TikTokification of food in general (from giant croissants to endless queues to try the latest viral hot spot).

But what does Khoo make of it all, and what would it look like if she had opened The Little Paris Kitchen in 2025?

“Nowadays, it would be insane. I think I would feel slightly overwhelmed with all the social media I haven't even gone into,” admitted Khoo, who has built a platform of 395,000 followers on Instagram, but noted how she “would still keep it [the concept] the same.”

“It's great for the business,” Khoo added on establishments going viral on social media. However, at the same time, the chef acknowledged how “locals suffer a little bit” as a result, and anecdotally mentioned a fellow chef can no longer go to their local steak and chips place after it went viral on TikTok, causing “a queue around the block”.

I was keen to pick Khoo's brain on any authentic Paris foodie recommendations she has as a former local (the chef and The Great Australian Bake Off judge now lives in Stockholm, Sweden).

“I'm very partial to Belleville in [Parc des] Buttes-Chaumont, because that's my last neighbourhood I lived in. I love the vibrancy. It's very diverse. There’s a big Chinese community there. Buttes-Chaumont is an amazing, beautiful park. It's perfect for a picnic."

The chef elaborated: “I always say, if you're coming to Paris on a budget, and you're coming when the weather's nice, hit a market. Go to one of the fresh food markets, get some nice produce. Get some cheese and ham, and a baguette. Go have a picnic. It will cost you less than 10 euros.”

“Picnicking is one of my favourite things, and it's such a local thing to do, because everybody shops at the markets, and it's so popular in Paris.”

We're adding this to our Paris travel bucket list!

Kettle Chips launches brand-new French Flavours made with Kettle Chef and best-selling author Rachel Khoo. Available in Waitrose and Morrisons now.

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