Nothing is wrong with dinner and a movie, but don’t let your dating life get stuck in a rut. Taking a cooking class and trying new food – procuring it, cooking it and enjoying it together – is a fabulous way to add a spark of romance to an everyday activity and open new doors to recipes that you and your significant other may not have tried on your own.
“When a guy typically meets a lady, he’ll ask if he can take her out to dinner,” says chef Jernard Wells, who earned his nickname “The Love Chef” at 15 years old when neighborhood girls would call him to place orders for food that he cooked out of his mother’s kitchen in Mississippi. “Before kissing or anything, a guy will take a lady out for dinner. We think that first base is getting a kiss or whatever, but if first base doesn’t transpire around food, it isn’t going any further. Food is always first base.”
As important as food is to romance, Wells says mealtime can be a real source of stress for couples because we tend to think that we don’t have the time. Instead of resorting to a take-out menu or frozen pizza, Wells recommends choosing to make time together for cooking and tackle your meals as a team.
The Love Chef, Jernard Wells“Normally people have scattered lives,” he says. “Some eat before they come home or in front of the TV; instead, do it together. It makes for a more exciting experience. It puts both of you in the room together and allows you to communicate together.”
Taking a cooking class – which typically runs from $29-$70 per person and includes chef instruction as well as a full meal – and learning to work with each other in the kitchen can be a launch pad to start viewing cooking as a means of bonding as a couple.