Get Valentine's night right - Brits’ ‘top 5’ date night cooking faux pas revealed

What to avoid and what to get right on Valentine's Day

To coincide with Valentine’s Day, new research from Samsung Electronics UK Ltd reveals Brits’ ‘top five’ awkward and embarrassing kitchen mishaps when cooking a romantic meal for their partner.

Overcooking or undercooking food topped the list as the most common cooking ‘faux pas’ (20 per cent).

This is closely followed by messing up timings of when to cook everything (19 per cent).

Burning the food  is another common mistake (18 per cent).

Despite being in a relationship, some Brits surprisingly admitted to cooking a dish their partner doesn’t like (15 per cent).

Some even forget their loved-one is allergic to an ingredient they have used (15 per cent).

The study by Samsung, to support their innovative Dual Cook Flex™ ovens, also revealed that fillet steak is likely to feature on many dinner tables this Valentine’s Day, with one in five Brits (20 per cent) saying it’s their all-time favourite dinner date dish.

However, Gen Zs did not agree, with a veggie curry topping the list (13 per cent) for their age group.

The research highlighted the growing demand for ‘dine in for two’ style packages, with nearly one in five (17 per cent) Brits planning to purchase one of the packages to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year.

When it came to date night turn offs, talking about ex partners topped the list (33 per cent), followed by work chat (33 per cent), poor table manners (32 per cent) and cheesy music (19 per cent).

To help couples this Valentine’s Day, Samsung enlisted the help of leading dating expert, Sarah Louise Ryan, to provide her top tips on how to have a memorable Valentine’s Day dinner at home, including how to avoid common mishaps and ensure there are no kitchen or oven cooking dramas.

Dress to impress

After a couple of years in our favourite jogging bottoms, Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to pull out all the stops to feel good on the inside and look good on the outside. Dress to impress if you really want to set the date night scene.

Plan food ahead

You don’t want to have any last-minute hiccups with a missing ingredient or two, so plan what you’re both making ahead of time to make cooking hassle free.

You may want to make different dishes

Why don’t you both mix it up by cooking a dish each? So your partner could take the starter and dessert, whilst you tackle the main course?

Work as a dream team as you’re working to dish up the romance

It may be the case that one of you is a dab-hand in the kitchen and the other one hasn’t the foggiest clue what to do.

Practice lots of patience with one another to keep the flame of the evening firing away, and if needs be, maybe allocate a Chef and a Sous Chef.

Keep all work chat off the table

So many couples use date night as a time to plan and catch up on life admin and the seemingly mundane. Challenge yourself and each other to keep chit chat to strictly all things romance and about you two as a couple.

Topics to talk about

Look at planning a holiday, your next weekend trip together or your weekly/monthly date nights. Think about things you’d want to do spontaneously or whilst planning ahead.

Keeping date night exciting

Create a date jar where each of you writes down many things on multiple pieces of paper that you would like to do on your date nights - scrunch them up and pull them out one at a time on each date night alternately.

Dishing up dessert

Why not rustle up a trio of desserts for you to share as you finish off your at home Valentine’s Day dining experience?

Keeping the night going

Think about watching a movie together or playing a game or two for you competitive few.

If you’ve been a dream team in the kitchen perhaps you want to set each other to task with competitive spirit. Or for those of you that are ready to wind down, simply relax on the sofa.

Make sure you have fun

Valentine’s Day Date night needn’t be a pressure cooker event. Do it the way you and your partner want to do it, keep it light and fun and playful and exciting. You both deserve to let your hair down and laugh, and who better to do that with than your significant other?