Chesterfield woman set to cook up romantic meal on ITVBe's Dinner Date

Leanne Miles will cook up romantic meal as a contestant on ITVBe’s Dinner Date, a show where one person is given the chance to find love over three meals, each made by a different blind date.

The episode, due to air on Wednesday night, will see the 30-year-old pull out all the stops with a menu featuring crispy buttermilk chicken strips and a pork belly main.

She had to submit her menu along with five other hopefuls, with filming taking place last year.

Leanne, who had been single for two years before filming, said: “I’m menu four but I was the third person picked. To be honest, I picked everything I like to cook so I did crispy buttermilk chicken strips with homemade chilli sauce.

"For the main, I’m obsessed with pork belly so I did that with creamy leeks, cabbage and an apple cider jus although it was more like a gravy.

"Then, for dessert, I did doughnuts but I’ve never done doughnuts in my life so they weren’t very good.

"When they asked me originally who I was trying to attract, I did say I’m a bit selfish I just like that food!”

Leanne, who works for the NHS in a respite unit for adults with learning disabilities, said she chose to participate in the popular show after becoming tired of the dating scene.

She added: “I just wanted a new experience. I watch it all the time on TV, I love cooking and I thought why not; I’m always sat in my house, hardly dating, and I thought I might as well get myself out there.

“With Covid and everything, everyone at work got redeployed and we had to work Covid wards. It’s just been a hard time so I think with this, everybody at work got so excited and told me I had to do it and were egging me on.

"On the day I was a nervous wreck thinking what am I doing but I know everybody from work is going to be watching and hopefully it’ll be a laugh.”

Dinner Date will air on ITVBe at 8pm on Wednesday, March 30.

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