I prefer to plan something simple at home — it is like a zoo in the restaurants and it is hard to be romantic with 100 people around you trying for the same thing. I like to create a small romantic space somewhere in my house. I don´t use my dining room because it is a little big — instead I create a small intimate dining area by using a smaller table set cozily somewhere in my house. Candles, flowers, a delicious meal and wines — you have all the ingredients for a romantic evening. Don´t stress about it being elaborate — one of my most romantic meals ever was probably the most simple and one of the funniest.
My partner is a happy camper with steak, carrots, and a good baked potato. Our house was under renovation at the time and we had moved back in with the kitchen as an empty shell — so we had no stove. I decided I was going to surprise my partner and cook — I figured we had a BBQ so I could pull this off. I put candles and flower petals everywhere — low light hides a multitude of sins and the petals covered the dust.
I turned on the BBQ and checked the propane gauge — full. So, I baked the potatoes and steamed the carrots on the BBQ and made a simple salad. I made chocolate mousse crêpes at a friend´s house a few days before and from my local butcher I purchased two of the most gorgeous Kobe beef rib eye steaks. My partner called to say he was five minutes away — I went out to crank up the BBQ and to my horror it would not get hot. The gauge was broken — it indicated it was full but in fact the tank was empty!
Momentary panic and then I shoot into “solution mode”. The potatoes and carrots where cooked. And the Kobe beef? My partner had stopped at the drugstore so I called him and asked him to look in the housewares section to see if they had a high-powered burner. He brought home a George Forman Grill. Kobe Beef is all about the delicious fat marbled through the beef and George Forman Grill is all about losing the fat. While George would not be happy that I rigged his grill to retain all the fat to grill my steak — he would be happy with how delicious the steak turned out. My partner and I, sitting in the middle of our shell of a kitchen, had not only a delicious meal but also a very memorable one.