10 Tips for Impressing a First Date by Cooking Dinner

If you’re hoping to impress your date on your first evening out, try cooking dinner at home together! Cooking a meal on the first or second date can be more relaxing and fun than going out to a restaurant because your focus is on the food preparation, not on each other. Cooking for your date will help you learn about each other in a whole different way — and can help you figure out what qualities of a potential love relationship are important to you.

“The trick is knowing when to compromise and when to go for it,” writes Dr Joy Browne in Dating For Dummies. “To do that, you have to know what’s really important to you. Once you know that, don’t settle.”

If your date isn’t interested in or supportive of you, then don’t worry about impressing him or her! Instead, focus on finding someone new to date. If you’re a single woman worried about how attractive you are, read Make Every Man Want You: How to Be So Irresistible You’ll Barely Keep from Dating Yourself! And, check out these tips for impressing your date…

10 Tips for Impressing a First Date by Cooking Dinner at Home

1. Let go of the pressure to impress your date. The best way to impress your date is to be relaxed, calm, and happy — and not worried about how you’re being perceived! Don’t make your first date more stressful than it needs to be, by cooking filet mignon, white truffle mushrooms, and organic purple cauliflower to be sautéed in a three pepper cheese sauce. Sure, your may notice the food — but it’s you he’s there to get to know.

2. Ask your date what his or her favorite meal is. When you’re deciding what to cook for your first date at home, do a little digging. What’s her favorite restaurant? Her favorite type of food? Any allergies? I’m not saying you should cook your date’s exact favorite meal; however, I do think it’s important to get a feel for what she likes. Plus, smart dating is all about getting to know each other better.

3. Pick something you can cook with your date. Making sushi is one of my favorite things to do with my husband. It’s interesting, complicated, and fun to eat – and we’re equally inexperienced at it, so we’re learning new things together. When you’re deciding what to cook your date for dinner, consider something that you can do together. Even if it turns out horribly, it’ll give you something to laugh about on your second date!

4. Ask your date to bring something. You can make interesting personality observations based on what dish he brings on your first date. Don’t be shy — make it fun! Ask your date to bring dessert or an appetizer. If he ignores your request and brings a case of beer, then you know what you’ll be cooking on a second date (and it better be nothing). Asking him to bring something can help you connect as dating partners, and makes your date feel needed.

5. Cook something interactive — an activity. Slurping soup and buttering bread doesn’t give you anything to talk about. Whatever you cook on a first date should encourage you to talk about more than the usual “get to know you” stuff. If you’re rolling fajitas or dipping bits of meat or veggies in a hot chicken broth fondue, you have built-in conversation starters for the first date - and you won’t be as nervous.

6. Avoid stir fry noodles, spaghetti, or chili dogs. I gotta say, it’s difficult to eat stir fry noodles or spaghetti and meat balls at the best of times, much less when you’re trying to impress a first date. I think chopsticks for Asian food (sushi!) is a nice challenge, though – especially if you set forks out.

7. Consider a tapas meal. Tapas are “little dishes” – Mediterranean I think – and they’d be a fantastic meal to cook for a first dinner date. Arrange an assortment of cheeses, olives, meats, apple slices, hummus, pita bread, pickles and whatever you fancy on the table or coffee table. This is a interactive way to eat dinner at home, and it’ll help improve your dating life by adding a bit of culture and spice to your singles life.

8. Avoid meals that require a lot of preparation. Whether it’s your first date or your 50th, you don’t want to be spending all your time in the kitchen cooking and no time talking. If the meal does require preparation, do it in advance. Better yet, invite your date into the kitchen and give him some slicing and dicing to do.

9. Give your date a chore! Does she balk at the idea of putting on an apron, or is she right there beside you, chopping up those onions? It’s always good to know a date’s stance in the kitchen before things go too far…because you don’t want to be the only one in the relationship who knows where the garlic press is.

10. Remember that dating isn’t about the food. If your first date involves cooking dinner at home or eating in a five star gourmet restaurant is the least important part of the evening! Do you and your date have lots to talk about? Is your date fun to be with? Do you feel comfortable with him? Focus on the things that matter – which are more important than impressing a first date by cooking dinner at home.

If you have any thoughts or questions about impressing a first date or cooking dinner together, please comment below…

Category: Communicating & Relating, Dating, Meeting People, New Relationships