11 Food-Related Things I Love About My Boyfriend

In honor of the anniversary of the day we met four years ago (also his birthday), here are some food-related reasons my boyfriend rocks. The other reasons are between us.

1. I met him while he was chopping vegetables on the kitchen island of a Newport, Rhode Island beach house, the location of my cousin’s wedding rehearsal dinner. I think he was cutting up zucchini, but it could’ve been green peppers, cucumbers or lettuce. It was green. He’s got serious knife skills.

2. He is food snobbier than I am, and I’m a professional food snob, ie., food writer.

3. His native Netherlands is the birthplace of Gouda cheese, named after the Dutch town. My Instagram name is GoudaGoodness. It’s a match made in, you know.

4. He has never eaten at McDonald’s in the United States. Ever. (See No. 2)

5. His Erkie Burger has been carefully formulated through much testing and re-testing, resulting in an exalted eating experience so meaty and flavorful that I make those food-porn noises, even when he doesn’t make the version oozing with goat cheese from within.

6. He loves to cook, and he’s great at it, creating the proper mis en place, and fine-tuning recipes with scientific precision, all recorded in his homemade, handwritten cookbook. And he claims he likes to do dishes. (Weirdo.)

7. He designed and oversaw the gutting and construction of our new tall-person-customized kitchen, complete with my input: river rock cabinet knobs, natural-edged reclaimed wood shelves for our cook books, spices and oils and our fun (but not too fun!) tiled backsplash.

8. Even though he prefers to do everything the hard, slow, old-fashioned (they call that artisanal these days, right?) European way, our kitchen now has a microwave and dishwasher. Yessss.

9. His engineering creativity shines through when he makes into reality my lofty Pinterested ideas, like chandeliers made out of our old orange colander and a three-cheese-grater marvel hanging from reclaimed wood above our dining room table.

10. His gardening skills — which have produced large and cherry tomatoes, hot and mild peppers, mint, basil, cilantro, thyme, sage and rosemary — reveal the nurturing, meditative aspects of his personality.

11. He looks hot in an apron. Especially when handing me one of the cheesiest, ooziest toasties ever.