How to show your Valentine you really love him — get a Michelin-starred chef around to cook

Esther N McCarthy invited Michelin-starred chef Andy McFadden into her kitchen to pass on some of his expertise and, more importantly, help up her serve up a two-course delight for her beloved.

When you’ve been with your partner so long, you used to make dates via pay phones and the very idea of an Ann Summers shop in Cork city was just too mad to contemplate, it can be difficult to come up with inventive Valentine’s Day gifts.

When you know the joint bank account is paying for that bouquet, you realise roses are highly overrated and a dozen is just so vulgar. A single carnation is so much more romantic, don’t you think? (Give me that Visa card, you tool, we haven’t paid the car tax yet).