First ( and hopefully not last) meal

[baranoouji]

My very first "serious" dish was cream puffs. No jest here, I was 13 and had a few home ec classes under my belt. I wanted cream puffs and my chef-inclined sister had just moved away, and by God I was going to have cream puffs. Three hours later, with the kitchen looking like a wreck, I had perfectly produced cream puffs. (I didn't really believe that they would actually puff up so I destroyed a few to check and see if they actually had holes.)

They were delicious and lasted one evening under intense grazing from my family.

As far as my first stab at cooking for my fiancé, it was when I was a freshman in college -- I stopped by his apartment with two dishes of tiramisu! With my schedule nowadays, he tends to take care of dinner... but I have been known to braise porkchops and make tuna au poivre for him.

[Hi, this is my first post...]

[Wine_Dad]

Early on, when I thought I could cook but couldn't, I used to offer to prepare meals for dates at their house. I would ask what they liked and study like mad to make it right then prepare it for them in their home/apartment/hovel.

My most memorable one was a Paella for a wonderful but spoiled rich girl in a giant mansion with a professional kitchen used by the family's chef! We started with wine and I described everything as it came together and why and made up stuff about the natural ingredients.

Long story short it turned out awful. Wall plaster chunky rice with saffron, hard as rock mussels, stringy chicken, and dried sausage.

Never heard from her again. Go figure.

[alicehat]

The first meal we cooked together was on the falling-down porch of the third-floor apartment I lived in at the time. It some piece of fish, halibut, I think, on a teeeny hibachi. We grilled some green onions and drank a bottle of Trefethen Chardonnay (it was the eighties).

I do remember the first meal I cooked for him (and I was a novice for sure) straight out of the NYT Cookbook: cream of mushroom soup and chicken with tomato-tarragon sauce. What I remember most is that he called at the last minute, after I'd spent the whole day cooking, to say that he wasn't coming over; he'd decided he wasn't hungry. I told him he'd better bring his little tookus over asap, or he'd never have the pleasure of my tookus ever again.

That was nearly 18 years ago, so I guess he liked my cooking (or maybe it's just my tookus)

[Susan G]

We'd just started dating, and I can't remember what the main course was, because the appetizers were such a disaster: Aged cheeses on crackers, rounds of salami, and a nice red wine. What's the problem, you ask?

The man is prone to migraines.

He was unable to drive home.

Just before we married, my mother asked him what he especially liked to eat. He said, "Anything Susan cooks".

[pingarina]

Spaghetti a l'amatriciana. Put "just the right amount" of sauce on (i.e., not too much, as in Rome). Although he found it a bit unfamiliar, he inhaled the first serving, went back to the kitchen, spooned an enourmous amount of pasta onto his plate, and dropped half of a stick of butter onto the top. To each his own

[foodie52]

The man is prone to migraines.

He was unable to drive home.

OK: did you fall for that or was that just an excuse????

[Luckylies]

my boyfriend was a complete manorexic when we met (that lasted...15 mins) our first food date involved grilling on the viking at my moms house (she was out of town and her kitchen blows mine away)...so I was really into using her neatest goodies... I'm also a broke youth so most of the ingredients were foraged from the freezer the pantry etc... i think the meal cost me six bucks. thank god my mom freezes such good shit.

grilled duck breasts with balsamic glazed black mission figs. tarragon oven roasted tomatos. mashed white truffle potatos.

wine.

[helenjp]

I don't remember what I first cooked for my husband, because we worked together and had many common friends, his plate was just another plate at the table. I do remember the green, stringy, weeks-old pot of Japanese curry that I discovered in his kitchen one day though...

And I remember deliberately mishearing him and buying him a Fish Burger instead of Fresh Burger just to annoy him. He must be one patient guy...

As for my cooking...one day he came very late from work to a party, and rolled into the living room to find everybody else had helped themselves from the buffet on the coffee table and were chatting and drinking. Nothing abashed, he SAT DOWN on the floor, bellied up to the laden coffee table, and started pulling all the serving dishes towards him. He grabbed some chopsticks, and ate his way steadily through EVERYTHING on the table, pausing from time to time to sigh and lick his lips. By the time he finished, everybody was watching in reverent silence...

Can't remember what was served, though there was probably a salsa and a ceviche...it was the '80s, after all.

[Mooshmouse]

Hmmm. Not even a clue about the first meal that I cooked for my husband. But I certainly remember the first meal that he ever prepared for me. Ironically, it was breakfast.

More than 11 years ago now and we had already been friends for about 3 years. On the morning of a work-related meeting, we had originally planned to meet at a local greasy spoon for breakfast before the meeting. But, since his condo was close to the meeting venue, he volunteered to make me breakfast instead. And what a breakfast it was. Very simple, but oh-so-artfully presented. A platter of fresh summer fruit and berries, either whole or sliced, all perfectly layered and fanned out like a rainbow. A selection of oven-warmed breakfast pastries, muffins and croissants. Freshly squeezed orange juice. And a brilliantly brewed pot of coffee.

All this from just a friend. I was absolutely floored. And I've never looked at him the same way again. What a guy.

[fishmansam]

Shrimp and Scallop flan with Lobster sauce. And some very good champagne. There had been a full dinner menu planned, but the next meal was breakfast.

As a restaurant chef i had certain resources available to me most of you can't lay hands on. But there's something about a custard.... it always "worked" and i saw customers swoon over each other, too.

[Susan G]

The man is prone to migraines.

He was unable to drive home.

OK: did you fall for that or was that just an excuse????

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I'd made a picnic on the floor of my living room. When my date was curled into the fetal position, grimacing, and whispering - well, that was what we call a "clue" something was amiss.

If I'd sent him into anaphylaxis, at least I could have done something about it (at the time, I was an ambulance director). As it was, I felt horribly guilty for "poisoning" him in a way for which there was no antidote.

I rubbed his neck and temples for hours. Breakfast was much better.