Appetite for Love

Mary Luz Mejia, Toronto

When I started dating Mario, he told me he could make a killer lemon cream chicken with pasta. He promised to cook up his signature dish for our first Big, Romantic Night. When dinner was served, I closed my eyes and inhaled the aromas of fresh lemon, zest and spices. But then I looked down, only to see a curdled mess of sauce swimming in my plate. I dug right in anyway and praised that meal to the moon, because this man had cared enough to pour a whole lot of TLC into those split sauce-logged chicken pieces. That dinner bonded us as partners; since then we’ve been together eight years and dined everywhere from Montreal to Mexico.