‘You’ve got to be pretty ballsy’ – the perils of cooking when your other half’s a restaurant superstar

The partners of chefs Angela Hartnett, Russell Norman, Monica Galetti, Cyrus Todiwala, José Pizarro and food critic Marina O’Loughlin explain what it’s like to cook for them

According to tradition (if not basic science), the quickest way to your partner’s heart is to cook them a delicious meal. But what if your partner’s a Masterchef judge? Or a professional chef? Or someone whose day job recently involved ridiculing a restaurant for a chicken parmesan dish that resembled their “nightmarish chicken centipede”? As the nation’s amateur cooks prepare to whip up romantic Valentine’s meals, spare a thought for those whose other halves’ day jobs are enough to set any heart racing. And not in a romantic sense.