RIEDEL Concierge
Enhance Your Romantic Dinner with Your Loved One this Valentine’s Day
Some see Valentine’s Day as a moment filled with pressure to do something special. We see it as an opportunity to sweep your partner off their feet with a thoughtful display of care, creativity, and culinary enjoyment. After all, who doesn’t appreciate someone who takes the time to prepare a memorable meal, served with intention and attention to detail?
The benefits of making that extra bit of effort
1. Quality Time Without Distraction
In everyday life, uninterrupted time together can be hard to come by. Busy work schedules, social commitments, family responsibilities, and daily routines often leave little space for one-on-one connection. Creating a moment dedicated solely to you and your partner allows you to slow down and enjoy each other’s company. When done with care, it can also create positive memories that strengthen your romantic bond.
2. Building New Connections Through Food
When life settles into a routine, it is easy to rotate the same meals week after week. While familiarity has its comforts, introducing something new can be refreshing. Planning and preparing a dish you do not often enjoy together opens the door to discovery. Food and drink can spark conversations about culture, history, and shared experiences, and might even inspire your next getaway.
3. Making Thoughtfulness a Habit
Keeping a relationship engaging takes intention. Over time, it is easy to become complacent, but thoughtful gestures help keep things feeling fresh. Preparing a well-considered meal shows appreciation and care, reminding your partner how good it feels to be treated. Seeing their reaction reinforces that effort is worthwhile and often encourages the same consideration in return. It is a simple gesture with lasting impact.
A few food and drink suggestions for you to consider:
The range of dishes that can impress your partner is endless, spanning cuisines and flavors from around the world. From tagine to tacos, ramen to ratatouille, churros to chocolate fondue, the options are plentiful. To keep things manageable, here are a few food and drink ideas that are sure to set the mood and be well received.
Nothing says romantic meal like a freshly opened, chilled bottle of Champagne. Widely considered an iconic celebratory drink, what better choice than Champagne to celebrate your relationship with the one you love? Certain Champagnes also pair beautifully with oysters, creating the ultimate romantic food and drink double-act.
There are a wide variety of Champagne styles that you can enjoy with your romantic meal. To lend a helping hand, here are a few of the most popular types that you may want to consider:
- Champagne Brut is the most popular type of Champagne, accounting for almost 80% of exports. Brut Champagnes are dry in nature, containing less than 12 grams of sugar per liter, making them a good option for people who don’t like their wines too sweet. These qualities also make it ideal for pairing with numerous savory dishes.
- Demi-Sec Champagne. Meaning ‘half-dry’, Demi-Sec contains between 33 and 50 grams of sugar per liter, making it well-suited to Champagne-lovers who enjoy that middle ground of not too dry, not too sweet.
- Doux Champagne is the sweetest of the Champagne styles. With more than 50 grams of sugar per liter, this is one for people with a real sweet tooth. Doux Champagne can be paired with rich, sweet desserts that match its qualities, such as a sumptuous chocolate tart.
At RIEDEL, we always recommend serving your Champagne from a Champagne wine glass to get the most out of its aromas and qualities. Fortunately, we have a variety of Champagne glassware for you to choose from to enhance any Champagne-sipping occasion, including the Champagne wine glass options from our RIEDEL Veloce and RIEDEL Winewings collections. You can learn more about the benefits of using a Champagne wine glass in our detailed blog on the subject.
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A favorite for many, you could call steak the original romantic dinner. Rich, classy, but uncomplicated, steak dishes can be an excellent choice for anyone from the reluctant, inexperienced chef to a seasoned culinary veteran who knows a good cut when they see one.
If you’re opting for a steak dish that uses a reasonably fatty cut, such as a porterhouse or a t-bone steak, we recommend pairing it with a full-bodied red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, or Shiraz. If, however, you enjoy a leaner cut, such as a fillet steak or a sirloin, light to medium-bodied reds such as Pinot Noir can work well. Fuller-bodied rosé wines with a good amount of acidity can also work well with leaner steak cuts.
If steak for Valentine’s Day appeals to you, our steak with chimichurri recipe might be just what you’re after.
A satisfying main course sets the tone, but dessert is what completes the experience. Chocolate desserts, in particular, bring a sense of indulgence that feels perfectly suited to a romantic evening.
Chocolate is known to stimulate the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and satisfaction. In other words, a well-made chocolate dessert can quite literally lift the mood. For inspiration, a simple yet indulgent chocolate cake makes an excellent finale to the evening.
Another mood-enhancing and universally loved food that is a classic when it comes to desserts are strawberries. Like chocolate, strawberries can help with the release of dopamine, while they can also aid with the release of serotonin, which can help to regulate your mood and is often referred to as the body’s ‘feel-good’ chemical.
With the above two points in mind, a dessert option that’s sure to put your partner into a good humor is our chocolate and strawberries recipe. Simple, but full of flavor and a real mood-lifter that will help to ensure your evening as chef is a winner.
We hope all of the above helps you feel inspired to serve up a romantic dinner to remember for your partner!
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