'I KEEP HER AWAKE, AND SHE KEEPS ME BUSY'

TV cooking couple John Torode and Lisa Faulkner on the recipe for lasting love and how a little of what you fancy does you good

They work together and live together, but that doesn’t stop John Torode and Lisa Faulkner making time to have a date night every single week.

The couple first met when Lisa won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, bonded over their love of cooking and married in 2019.

They are now on their eighth series of John And Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, and say they are never happier than when they are on the same team.

“It’s really lovely,” grins Lisa. “Lots of people say it must be really hard to work together but actually it’s not like that at all. He’s my best mate.”

Unsurprisingly, John feels the same, although he stresses the pair are not in each other’s pockets all the time.

“You can’t ask for a greater gift,” he agrees. “We do our own thing and we bounce along quite nicely together.”

MasterChef takes up a lot of John’s time – his 19th series is currently being broadcast – but no matter how much amateur cooking he’s had to taste, if it’s date night, John is still wining and dining his wife.

“We do have a date night,” smiles Lisa. “It’s really lovely. Even if he’s full of food [from MasterChef] and doesn’t want to eat, he’ll still go if I want to go, and have something little.”

John likes to make sure he and Lisa do something different each week.