By Leigh O’Connor, Editor.
After 28 years of marriage and working together, there have been plenty of ups and downs for Peter and Karen Kuruvita, who say learning to compartmentalise is essential along with making sure they also have fun together.
The couple behind Chef-hatted restaurant ALBA NOOSA on Alba Close in Noosa Heads met across the kitchen pass at Bilsons Restaurant in Circular Quay in 1989 where Karen had just started as a waitress and Peter was Head Chef.
"After five years, we were working hard to go on an adventure – wanting to go somewhere exotic, followed by a year of backpacking – and I really wanted to start our adventure as husband and wife,” Peter tells AGFG.
"I had a day off but Karen had a big week and was tired and frustrated waiting for our planes and was coming home late. So, I left a trail of rose petals leading to the bedroom and my proposal.”
This power couple of the kitchen has travelled extensively, living and working on a remote island in Fiji for two years, running a boutique 12-bure resort with only one dirt road, one grass runway and four tiny villages.
"The menu for dinner used to get written once the fishing boat returned for the day with its catch. We once organised the medi-evacuation of a shark attack victim,” Peter recalls. "Karen had the doctor on the phone giving instructions while I had my hand in the guy’s arm to stitch his artery together for the evacuation.
"He only had two pints of blood left in his body when he landed but survived.”
As we prepare to celebrate National Men Make Dinner Day on Thursday, November 2 we had to ask who is the boss in the home kitchen and how often does Peter cook dinner?
"We both take turns, but I love Karen’s cooked-from-the-heart home favourites. Even though I eat at great restaurants and hotels around the globe, coming back home to Karen’s spag bol or one-pot chicken rice is the best!”
The couple says the best way to keep the romance alive in your marriage is to get away occasionally to a different environment and setting, such as getting out in nature, regularly basking in the sun and fresh air to clear away the cobwebs.
Karen reveals Peter’s most annoying habit is leaving a mess in the kitchen after cooking as the family has a rule that the person who cooks doesn’t have to clean up.
"Peter loves to cook at home, he gets excited cooking for the family and makes the most simple things delicious and interesting. However, that also usually means a lot of pots, implements and mess, he’s used to having a kitchen hand. So, we do pay a price for that good eating.”
As the purpose of Men Make Dinner Day is to get men to take an equal role in the home kitchen, Peter shares his recipe for devilled tuna with AGFG readers.
"I’ve chosen a recipe that is not only really easy but delicious and healthy – yes, all three! It’s also a firm favourite in Sri Lanka and reminds me of travels home. Sweet, sour, spicy, simple and easy to clean up!”
Since the other husbands in your neighbourhood should also be cooking dinner, ironically Men Make Dinner Day could be the ultimate male bonding experience; plus you’ll gain brownie points with your wife, just don’t ask to use them on a boys’ night out!
