CAVEMAN cooking proved a hit as a mum-of-four took part in the first couples’ edition of Come Dine with Me – despite her husband being a culinary neanderthal.

Suzanne Elman went on the new-format TV show, in which contestants cook for each other in their homes, with “paleolithic” food, which avoids excess sugar and grain, despite husband Simon’s lack of experience in the kitchen.

Suzanne, from Chalkwell, said: “He forgot their names and to put spoons on the table, but he did what he was told in the kitchen.

“He didn’t cook, but he behaved himself. He was quite nervous.”

The couple cooked butternut squash soup and almond flour bread, followed by steak, Asian salad and sweet potato fries.

Her husband prepared a dessert of homemade honeycomb ice-cream with caramelised orange dessert and chocolate dessert.

The show is famous for its cruel editing and sarcastic voiceover and the couple are yet to see the edition, which is due to be shown next month, but Suzanne denied there was any friction, often seen on the show.

Suzanne, 50, said: “It was great. It was really good fun, but it was exhausting.”

The production company filmed Suzanne shopping at Green’s Health Foods, in Rectory Grove, Leigh, and enjoying a coffee at the Roslin Beach Hotel, in Thorpe Bay, as well as at their home in Chalkwell Avenue.

As a child in Ireland, Suzanne watched her grandmother cook, but only really got serious when she married Simon, who was used to his mother’s cooking.

She said: “My mother-in-law was an amazing cook and I had to keep up with her to cook for my husband.”

For the past nine years she has offered cooking classes for six to 12- year-olds, called Kids’ Kitchen.