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Forget the flowers and violins. A truly memorable meal just needs to come from the heart
There's more to a truly romantic meal than pink champagne and heart-shaped desserts – as anyone with a soul and a modicum of good taste knows. Real romantics also know that romance is about spontaneity, not forcing things on an annual date preordained by florists and greetings card manufacturers.
Combined with the fact that Valentine's Day tends to be a working day for the majority of those in the restaurant industry, this means that their own romantic meals tend to fall on any date other than 14 February.
To find out about the meals that made their hearts flutter, I spoke to a selection of well-known food figures.
If you're someone who works with and loves food, it is rarely a secondary concern, but for many, what was eaten was just the icing on the cake: what made these meals special was not just what was on the plate but everything that surrounded it – in particular being able to relax and enjoy it.
That's worth remembering later tonight if you're struggling to smile in an expensive restaurant or battling with an over-elaborate menu in your own kitchen.
Please feel free to share your own loved-up eating anecdotes below the line.
René Redzepi
Chef-proprietor of Noma, Copenhagen
"One Saturday night in Noma about two years ago I was getting ready for service and my sous chef said: 'Go home, there's something waiting for you.' When I got there my wife had prepared a special five-course meal for me. She had been practising it for two months on her friends and family and it included shaved vegetables with truffle vinaigrette, and crispy potato skins with bleak roe and a watercress sauce – masterpieces both. Without a doubt, the best meal of my life."
Gizzi Erskine
Chef, food writer and TV presenter
"About seven years ago, when we'd been together about a year, my boyfriend Dean and I rented this huge house in Rye, East Sussex for a week. We both woke up really early one morning and just thought, let's get up and get out. We threw some sausages in the Aga and stuffed them in some lovely bloomer rolls with loads of butter, drove down to the coast and ate them watching the sun come up."
Anna Hansen
Chef-proprietor of The Modern Pantry, London
"I went to these amazing Turkish baths in Marylebone with my boyfriend Peter for his birthday last June. We had a steam and a massage in the afternoon and left feeling really relaxed and lovely. Then we went to Barrafina in Soho for dinner, which was surprisingly romantic despite being so hectic. We sat at the end of the bar, away from everyone, and shared rump of lamb, black pudding with quail eggs on top, and razor clams."
Fay Maschler
The London Evening Standard's restaurant critic for the past 40 years
"One of the downsides of bring a restaurant critic is that few people offer to cook for you. When I met my husband Reg Gadney 21 years ago, I was impressed and intrigued by the offer of dinner in his top-floor Holland Park apartment. And naturally I wanted to check the bathroom for evidence of a woman in his life. No heated rollers found, beautifully cooked halibut served, the first sighting of what turned out to be his signature spring onion garnish – finely sliced vertically - excellent flinty Savennières to drink. We ate on the balcony overlooking London and, as it turned out, our future together."
Nathan Outlaw
Chef-proprietor of Restaurant Nathan Outlaw and Outlaw's Seafood and Grill in Rock, Cornwall, and Outlaw's at The Capital Hotel in London
"I went for dinner at Alain Ducasse's Louis XV in Monaco with my wife for our 10th wedding anniversary. Going somewhere as grand as that you worry about feeling uncomfortable but the service was just so perfectly judged, they made everything seem effortless. I remember starting which a salad of local vegetables, which tasted all the better as we'd walked through the market and seen them on display the day before, having a lobster cooked to order, and then choosing the rum for our baba – the perfect meal."
• Where Chefs Eat: A Guide to Chefs' Favourite Restaurants by Joe Warwick is published by Phaidon. Visit wherechefseat.com; Twitter: @WhereChefsEat