Taste
Together even in the kitchen
Couples enjoy sharing culinary duties

By Christianna McCausland
Special To The Sun
Originally published February 9, 2005

Opposites Attract

Diane Bukatman and Bert Rankin make an unlikely pair in the kitchen. She is a professionally trained chef and the owner of For the Love of Food, a boutique catering company in Reisterstown that also offers cooking courses. Rankin was a meat-and-potatoes guy who says salt and pepper were the only spices in his house when he was a child. They met at a cooking class for singles where Rankin was a student and Bukatman was teaching. He took her course on chocolate truffles and seven years later they are still cooking.

"I always had an affinity toward good food, but I never had the skills or the training," says Rankin, who is in corporate development at Maryland Public Television.

Bukatman changed all of that.

"When we first met, I taught him the right way to chop onions and he got a real kick out of that, so he does a lot of the prep work," says Bukatman.

While Rankin enjoys learning the science behind cooking, Bukatman appreciates the efforts of her prep chef. "It is wonderful to have all the drudge work done -- it's like being on TV. It makes you feel loved to know someone does that for you."

"There's nothing more intimidating than being in the kitchen with a professional chef when you are not; that's why I'm more prep-oriented," says Rankin. "That being said, I make a mean breakfast and I get A-pluses on my omelets."

The couple have an exquisite kitchen in their Reisterstown home, which they share with their three Chinese crested powder puff dogs, Luna, Bella and Merlin.

When they cook for themselves, they enjoy simple dishes, although Rankin notes that Bukatman can even transform ordinary peanut butter and jelly into a gourmet experience. But when they entertain friends, the experimentation begins. Bukatman loves to cook with spontaneity and spice, and she and Rankin will pull out all their cookbooks to find exotic recipes.

"I'm really bad because I will experiment on friends," says Bukatman. "People ask me how I know it's going to work and it just never occurs to me that it won't work. You have an instinct when you read a recipe as to what will work."

The couple found a rhythm through trial and error and now the process is relatively smooth. Bukatman is still the teacher; Rankin is her official taste tester. On catering jobs, the two work together well.

"I think you need to figure out what each other's strengths are," says Bukatman. "If you know that something is your strength, do what is your strength. If the other person likes prep, don't take that on yourself because then you could make the whole thing an unpleasant experience. You may find that out while you're cooking or you may want to sit down and say, 'Hey let's cook a meal -- what do you like to do?'"

Each year on Valentine's Day, Rankin cooks dinner for Bukatman. "If you choose the right menu, it can be sensuous in a way," says Rankin. "Especially if the relationship is flat, it can be a great way to get out of a rut."

Bukatman's favorite dishes for romance are gooey and rich, like fondue, or decadent, like strawberries dipped in aged balsamic vinegar.

After seven years with Bukatman, Rankin says he's spoiled for good food. The only drawback to being one half of a gourmet couple is that sometimes Bukatman's food snobbery wins out -- Rankin still can't get her to make him an old-fashioned green-bean casserole with French's fried onions.

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