Nothing could be more French than pastry.
Rachel Khoo
A sandwich needn't be loaded with bacon or ham to make it a serious feast.
Every good jam tart deserves the finest preserve.
But understanding the complexities of the ramen menu is an equally tricky feat for a foreigner. Both regional and stylistic variations apply to each menu. Add to that the spin that each particular ramen chef puts on his dish, and you rarely know what you are going to get.
Forget sushi, yakitori and tempura, ramen is what really gets the Japanese excited.
I admit it, I do like pickled red onion. I made some the other day. You just slice up the onion, pull it apart and you get these petals and you make a pickling liquid, I make mine sweet and sour.
True to his Malay Chinese heritage, my dad would regularly whip up a revitalising spicy broth in the depths of winter. He was a firm believer that spicy food is the solution to most problems, and feeling under the weather was no exception.
While studying art and design at Central Saint Martins, I went round supermarkets taking photos of shoppers and their baskets: the game was to match people with their food. For an architectural project, I made a scale model of a shop out of gingerbread rather than foam and added icing and sweets very colourfully.
I had quite a few jobs in Paris before hitting the jackpot and writing cookbooks. One of them was peeling vegetables and prepping other veggie delights at Bob's Juice Bar.
I love watching the fishermen step off their boats and lay out their catch - typically sardines, monkfish and everything you'd find in bouillabaisse.
With patisserie, unlike with cooking, you have to be very precise; you can't just add a bit of this and a bit of that, because your cake starts melting. There's a lot of technique involved, but you can still be creative. Because of my artistic background, when I have that freedom I tend to do things a little bit out of the box.
The Little Paris Kitchen' was about my experience of living and cooking in Paris, 'My little French Kitchen' about my travels around France and 'Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook' was a peek into my personal cooking diary with influences from around the world.
Alot of my inspiration comes from people that you don't see on TV like my mum and my grandma. There's so much history and knowledge.
The Great British summer has many qualities, but unfortunately guaranteed warm weather is not one of them.
Don't be afraid to play with combinations and quantities of spices to create your own bespoke spice rub.
When I studied at the Parisian cookery school Le Cordon Bleu, making shortcrust pastry was one of the first techniques I learned.
Back in my school days, when I would scuttle off with a cheese roll, an apple, a box of Sun-Maid raisins and a Penguin bar, my packed lunches were reassuringly predictable. And I liked it that way.
I inherited my 1960s copy of 'French Provincial Cooking' by Elizabeth David from my mother Gabrielle, who in turn inherited it from her mother Frances. It was my bible when I first moved to Paris aged 26.
For me, the best burger buns are made from an enriched dough, soft and absorbent enough to soak up all the juices.
Eating wantan mee in Malaysia is my earliest memory. The street sellers there have a whole cooking set-up on the front of their bikes.
Crumpets for me are the quintessence of a British afternoon tea, the ideal winter warmer that would welcome me home from school.
Wild garlic and crab is a revelatory pairing.
While we Brits love a curry, the French get their spicy kicks from the culinary traditions bestowed by their North African population.
Brittany might not boast the biggest collection of Michelin stars in France, but when it comes to produce, you quickly realise that some of the key building blocks of French cuisine have their roots here.
I haggle with French grannies over their old knick-knacks and walk away with some real gems.
I remember a trip to Malaysia to visit my dad's family when I was eight. It was Christmas and they roasted a whole suckling pig on the fire and it made me nauseous.
Those Frenchies may know their pastry, but you can't beat a bit of British cheese.
I would try and barter a cake for some help with coding. I'm not the best coder. I have some basic HTML but that's about it.
Fig season is a joyous time of year for me. Back in my Paris days, the markets would be filled with piles of these squidgy fruit, no doubt sent up from the sunny south where they grow in abundance.
Ramen is Japanese soul food, appealing to old and young, rich and poor.
I will always look at my little Paris apartment with fond memories but I am too old to be sleeping on a futon bed!
Rubbing meat or vegetables with sweet and savoury spices before roasting or sizzling on a grill is what summer nights are all about.
There are a lot of potatoes in Swedish food. They love their potatoes in all forms, they even put potato puree on their hotdogs. You can order a hot dog that has the frankfurter in it, then you have mustard or ketchup, then potato puree and deep fried crunchy onions.
I think for me the final push to move to Paris was the fact I wanted an adventure and I was slightly bored of my life in London.
Mum and Dad grew vegetables and every day it would be beans for dinner and we'd have to go and pick them, and weed and stuff. If you wanted your pocket money you did your chores.
Education in Bavaria is tough. You fail sports, you have to repeat the year.
Many a Gallic treat is based on a hearty dose of butter.
A visit to the Rennes market, one of the finest I have seen in France, alone will convince you of the virtues of Breton gastronomy. It's a testament to the fact that Brittany is Frances' most agriculturally active region, with the producers themselves peddling their products, a vocal bunch, full of recipe ideas and passion.
Moving to France is not the hard part. Living here is more difficult. Of course there are many benefits but it's not always easy especially if you don't speak the language.
I'm less Soho House these days, more Airbnb. It's just so useful to have a washing machine, or to rock up somewhere with a baby bed and all the other kit provided.
Savoury cakes are very popular in France, they appear in boulangeries and with a side salad on lunch menus in chic cafes, but they're most likely to appear at a picnic.
To follow my meal, I'd drink a glass of my uncle's homemade apricot schnapps. He puts it in beautiful glass bottles and sells it at his local market in Austria. You don't normally drink with Asian food, so this would be a fitting end to the meal.
I used to have a bit of a thing against starting a meal with soup. I'd find they were often too heavy, filling you up rather than igniting the appetite. Plus, I'd end up mopping it up with scoops of baguette.
I think my heritage makes me very open to try things, taking on different flavours, mixing it all up. I find that exciting.
As a woman you have to tick all these boxes to be able to be on TV. I know I look a certain way and that's partly why I'm on TV. If I were really ugly and fat, I don't think I'd have had the same chance.
I'm always looking for a way to get some spice into my cooking but, generally, the French don't like spicy food.
It's great that Mary Berry got a primetime TV show, but I don't think there are enough women chefs on TV.
A whole trout is the ultimate Sunday table centrepiece to replace a hearty roast. It looks a little retro with the radish and cucumber scales, but this also adds freshness and acidity.
I love cheese. It intensified when I moved to France. It felt like my cheese shop lady was my dealer because every week I'd say, 'I need this cheese, I need that cheese', and she'd cut me enough for the week but I'd finish a whole piece in one go.
I'm not one for souvenirs though I do have a treasured yellow pot I bought at Maison d'Empereur in Marseille.
