Heart Doughnut at The Duck & The Peach. Credit: Carly Clark

Three Chefs, Three Courses, One Valentine’s Day Menu

10 Minute read

13 Jan 2026

Nevin Martell

Journalist

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For Valentine’s Day, three chefs each contribute a dish inspired by love, creating a fantasy three-course dinner you can cook at home.

Valentine’s Day dinners don’t have to be about grand gestures or culinary bravado. At their best, they’re about intention, balance, and cooking with someone specific in mind. For this fantasy Valentine’s menu, we asked three chefs to each contribute one dish they associate with love, whether that means beauty on the plate, comfort rooted in memory, or a sense of playful indulgence at the end of the night.

The result is a three-course meal you’d never find on a single restaurant menu, but can bring together at home for one night only. A starter built around color, delicacy, and visual allure. A main course shaped by simplicity, patience, and shared experience. And a dessert that leans into richness and joy, without taking itself too seriously.

Cook one dish or all three. What matters most is the thought behind it.

L'Ardente Hamachi Crudo. Credit: Mike Fuentes Photography

The Starter

So, when chef David Deshaies imagined the perfect date night with his wife, he pictured dishes that light up both the plate and the palate. That idea inspired the James Beard Award semifinalist to design a light, bright hamachi crudo for L’Ardente, his glamorous Italian restaurant that has become a favorite among Washington, D.C., couples, including the Obamas.

The swoon-worthy dish, part of the restaurant’s Valentine’s Day dinner-for-two special, which also includes a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, is a study in beauty and delicacy. Each slender slice of hamachi is adorned with a tiny edible flower, a roasted pistachio, a brûléed orange slice, a slip of jalapeño for heat, a sliver of kumquat for acidity, and a hint of fresh mint. The finishing touch is a drizzle of orange vinaigrette.

“It’s a bouquet of colors and flavors, a pretty dish that’s perfect for a sexy night out,” says Deshaies.

Aventino Cacio e Pepe. Credit: Scott Suchman

The Main

After a starter built on beauty and allure, the evening naturally turns toward something warmer and more grounding. Over a decade ago, chef Mike Friedman and his wife turned their honeymoon in Italy into a delicious scavenger hunt in search of the perfect cacio e pepe. As a loving homage to that experience, and a way for diners to create their own romantic moment together, the James Beard Award semifinalist put the iconic Roman dish on the menu at Aventino, his lively Italian restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, named one of the Best New Restaurants by The Washington Post and Washingtonian.

House-made, chitarra-like tonnarelli pasta forms the foundation of Friedman’s rendition, coated in a creamy emulsification of Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano Reggiano, a splash of pasta water, and a generous pat of butter. The tangle of noodles is finished with a crunchy shower of three different pan-toasted black peppercorns: tellicherry, kampot, and cubeb.

“One’s smoky, one’s a little spicier, and one’s sweeter, which rounds it all out,” says Friedman.

The dish’s complex flavors are paired with deceptive simplicity. “The best Italian food is simple in nature,” says Friedman. “But it takes time and practice to get cacio e pepe right, just like a relationship.”

Heart Doughnut from The Duck & The Peach. Credit: Carly Clark

The Dessert

With the main course rooted in memory, patience, and intimacy, dessert is where Valentine’s Day gets permission to have a little fun. If there’s one course where Valentine’s Day can really vamp it up on the plate, it’s dessert. Chocolate is mandatory. Hearts are everywhere. Pink is practically a requirement. RAMMY Award–winning pastry chef Rochelle Cooper of Capitol Hill favorite The Duck & The Peach embraces all of it with her pink-hued, heart-shaped doughnuts filled with chocolate crémeux.

Finding the right shade of romance, however, came with its own challenge. Cooper wanted the doughnuts to feel festive while still honoring her commitment to seasonality and natural ingredients. “There aren’t a lot of red things in season in February, and I don’t like food coloring,” says Cooper, who turned to blood oranges to create the Barbie-worthy pink glaze.

The result hits every note. “It’s luxurious and rich, but also playful and light with the citrus note, so it’s very balanced,” says Cooper. “And balance is what real love is all about.”

She always makes more doughnuts than needed for service, sharing the extras with colleagues and her husband, who happens to adore them. “He literally talks about them year-round, which is not typical of him because he’s not a dessert person,” she says. “Of all the things I make, it’s his favorite.”