It comes as no surprise to learn that the quietly spoken man who won Marion Grasby’s heart charmed her after he cooked an incredible feast when they met in Adelaide six years ago. "He was very impressive," recalls a besotted Marion with a blinding smile matched by the sparkling diamond engagement ring that Tim designed in secret with Affinity Diamonds.

"It was a six-course dinner with matching wines, and he spent six hours reducing down this crab sauce which was just amazing. And it wasn’t even a date, because he had never met me before that night!" The couple met through a mutual friend, and while there was an instant attraction, it still took several months before they fell in love — and yes, it was after a fantastic meal, at iconic Adelaide restaurant Star of Greece.

"I told him I was cold and needed to snuggle," remembers Marion, who admits she wasn’t in the least bit cold. "We’d been friends for a few months, and I thought he was pretty cute, and there was a bit of fancying going on...and he can cook!" Marion was so impressed to find a man who knew his way around a kitchen, she "forgot" to tell him she was also a passionate cook.

“I didn’t cook for Tim for a few months, because I enjoyed being cooked for — I actually pretended I couldn’t cook,” she says. It was preparing a batch of her mum’s spring rolls that brought her unstuck. "All of a sudden the requests were coming thick and fast, and now Tim doesn’t cook at all — although he does the best steak and lamb on the barbecue." The couple moved from Adelaide to Sydney when Marion was selected for MasterChef, renting a home at Palm Beach, overlooking Pittwater on Sydney's northern peninsula — a perfect backdrop to his romantic proposal.

Read more about Marion's proposal in this week's Woman’s Day on sale Monday August 20, 2012.