'He started playing footsie' - Sid and Chand Sahrawat's meet-cute

Sid and Chand Sahrawat at their Cassia restaurant. Photo / Dean Purcell

Moviemakers call it a "meet-cute" - an amusing first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship. Every fortnight, the Herald on Sunday's Reset magazine shares a real-life relationship origin story. This week, Sid and Chand Sahrawat and the one-night stand that led to a 15-year (and counting) marriage.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat met in Auckland in late 2002. They have two children, 11-year-old Zoya and Roan, 6, and own and operate the restaurants Sid at the French Cafe and Cassia.

CHAND SAYS . . . He started playing footsie, actually while I was chatting on MSN Messenger with my then boyfriend who was in Australia. Sid just happened to come and lay down on the bed next to me. He was very forward!

I came to New Zealand on an international student visa and I was flatting with one of his friends. It was a biryani night . . . and we ended up hooking up for what I thought was a one-night stand.

It was December, and I was going back home for the holidays. I'm just thinking 'let's have some fun tonight'. I thought he was hot, and technically, my boyfriend, well - he was in Australia and I was in New Zealand and I didn't know where the relationship was going, so . . . one in the hand!

We ended up going to the Whiskey Bar after the biryani thing, ditching our friends and not telling them what was going on. I remember he had a very messy room. Now, he's the complete opposite. A clean freak. People do change.

We were together for about month and then I was going back to India and he texted me, "love you forever, you live in me". When we got married, I had those words engraved inside his ring. We laugh at the fact that our one-night stand hasn't ended for 15 years.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat at their December, 2006 wedding held in Wellington. Photo/Supplied

He wasn't romantic. He stole my stick blenders, and he showed up at my birthday party with nothing. He was enigmatic and a driven person. I was attracted to his ambition and he was very, very passionate about food.

In 2004, we moved in together. My parents are quite liberal, but not to the extent that they were comfortable with the fact that I was living with a guy - my father was going to actually send my grandmother over for a visit and I had to front up and say I live with a boy, so please don't send the grandma over.

They said if you are serious about him, then we need to talk to his parents. When we decided to get engaged, Sid's dad made us have a civil union - "it takes a while to dissolve and if you're going to make a commitment it has to be on paper". I don't think many people know that we technically had a civil union that got converted into a marriage a year later! It was a big wedding, in Wellington - a five-day affair, on December 16, which, in the hospo world is the toughest time of year because you're so busy. Some years we don't even end up going out or celebrating, because the day is busy.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat at The Grove restaurant's 2005 Christmas party. Photo/Supplied

It was always a joke in my family "you'll end up marrying a chef or becoming a chef, because you love food so much", but when I first met him I couldn't even say "prosciutto" and I used to be a vegetarian. I had to teach myself to cook for him but then I would see him after work eating a pie or McDonalds. That's a myth about chefs, that they want fancy food. After work, they just want simple-simple. Instant noodles will do. I learned that over time. All these fancy things are good for me to know but he doesn't expect me to cook like that.

Love definitely changes. You go from the infatuated, insecure person you are when you are dating, to being almost in each other's skin. There's more maturity. It's not as crazy.

SID SAYS . . . We met through common friends at a dinner party. The first move? Probably me, I think. It seems quite a long time ago. She was, from memory, in a long-distance relationship.

It was just the chemistry, her personality - we just gelled straight away. I was single, so she was maybe the right person to come along. It was perfect timing. I would say that, in moments, I can be romantic, and I can be a little bit aloof as well. We definitely had a romantic start. It was quite fiery, in a good way.

We are both from India and, especially the grandmothers, are quite conservative. The family was a little bit worried about us living together, but we just worked our way around it. We were strong together and we dealt with the obstacles. It was my dad who was behind the civil union. I was quite open to that - we were in love with each other and if we have to do something that makes our parents happy and us happy, well we were quite happy to go with the flow - and it all worked out quite well.

I used to work at Non Solo Pizza, on the pizza section, and we used to make this stuffed pizza - kind of like a calzone, but not fully sealed on the sides. Whatever was left over, I would bring home to her. Yes, I did steal her stick mixer. I used to do that all the time. I even do it today, I just take stuff from home - Kitchenaids, thermomixers, everything.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat's wedding spanned five days and followed a civil union ceremony the year prior. This photo was taken at their wedding reception. Photo/Supplied

Chand was very caring. When I was working up north, almost every week she would drive up and bring me food. That felt like dedication and love.

Love changes in terms of the way our lives evolve. I think it gets a lot stronger, and you appreciate everything your partner does. Suddenly you have kids and you're making their future, making the business firmer, so the priority of things changes. You don't get as much time as you do when you are just a couple, but that consolidates the relationship.

We've been together almost 18 years now, so that's quite a substantial amount of time. That's half my life and almost all my adult life.