[2] In 2012, she received international acclaim for her cookbook and its accompanying BBC cookery series, The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo.
[3] Her paternal family were Chinese immigrants to Malaysia and were part of the Khoo Kongsi clanhouse in George Town, Penang.
[4] When Khoo was 12, her father's job in IT took the family to Bavaria, where they lived in the countryside outside Munich for four years.
[7] After graduating from university, Khoo worked in public relations for the shirt-maker Thomas Pink for two years.
[4] Looking for "adventure" in her life and with no knowledge of French, she quit her job and took a three-month patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2006.
While living in Paris, she worked part-time as an au pair and sold perfume at Printemps, an upscale department store.
She prepared and served food from her Paris flat in the Belleville neighbourhood, accommodating just two diners at a time.
[10] Later, the BBC commissioned The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo, her first TV series.
[13] Khoo released her second English-language cookbook, My Little French Kitchen, chronicling her travels across France, in September 2013, published by Michael Joseph.
On 9 March 2015, BBC television aired A Cook Abroad: Rachel Khoo's Malaysia, where she visited the home of her father's extended family and explored the cuisine of the country.
[16] In February 2016, she was announced as a new judge on the Australian TV cooking competition My Kitchen Rules, for the series' 7th season.
[23] On 7 February 2021, it was announced Rachel Khoo would be joining as a new judge on Great British Menu when the series returned in spring 2021.
She previously owned a flat in Kensal Green in north-west London, which served as the headquarters of her now-defunct lifestyle blog/studio Khoollect.
Khoo's extended maternal family is from the rural region of Feldkirch, Austria, near the border with Switzerland and she spent summers visiting Austrian relatives during her childhood.
In 2024, she launched her newsletter, Les Petits Pleasures, where she shares recipes and travel tips for paid subscribers.