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THIS IS A love story, one that tracks four couples who built impressive creative careers together. Spanning food, style, and design, their stories convey the curious nature of chemistry: the beautiful alchemy that happens when opposites attract, visions double, and passion meets passion. Here’s to the fires that, come hell or high water, burn ever brighter.

David Yurman and Sybil Yurman

Founders of David Yurman jewelry — together for 53 years.

What were your first impressions of each other?

David Yurman: She was a force of nature coming into the sculpture studio. She had black hair like Cher; two ponchos: one on the top (a Peruvian poncho) and one on the bottom — a double-decker poncho; black boots, red laces on the side, and little bells. She took big strides. I said to my friend, “Jim, who's that?” He said, “I don't know. What is that?” I said, “I don't know. But she moves very fast.” I was very impressed from the get-go. And I'm still impressed after 53 years.

Sybil Yurman: Well, I saw the sculptors, but David really stood out to me. I just loved the way he looked. He had very kind eyes, and he was curious about me, so I liked that. He had a torch in his hand with a little flame coming out of it. I was there interviewing for a job. I asked a friend, “So what's the story with David?” And she said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, is he married?” And she said no. And I said, “Is he gay?” And she said no. Anyway, I took the job.

David Yurman: She was very focused, very passionate about her painting. She was doing something called sky markings. [When she was] explaining it to me, I wasn't quite understanding what she was saying, but I was pretending to because I wanted to get closer. I remember thinking, I'm done! This is it. My life of looking and running around is over, and I'm only 24 years old … Growing up, my dad had a massive heart attack and had no earning capacity for over a year. So my sister and I had to take jobs on jobs after school. I had feelings Sybil did the same. She worked. She took care of stuff. There was this entrepreneurial, no-bullshit thing about her.

What inspires your creative partnership?

David Yurman: Everything we do starts from an emotional level: Sybil’s and mine. It was a magical synergy, because pretty much everything I was doing — because of the way I'm emotionally built — was somehow for Sybil’s pleasure: Will Sybil like this?

What are the challenges of running a business with your romantic partner?

Sybil Yurman: Never say anything you’re going to be sorry for.

David Yurman: Well, that’s a little late now.

Sybil Yurman: And it’s better to be kind than right — but that's hard.

David Yurman: I love that. It’s really better to be kind than right. It’s so important.

Jody Williams and Rita Sodi

Chefs and owners of Buvette and I Sodi, respectively, and co-chefs and co-owners of Via Carota, Bar Pisellino, and The Commerce Inn — together for 15 years.

What were your first impressions of each other?

Jody Williams: I was intimidated … It was at I Sodi. I had made my first attempt to go to I Sodi, but it has that sliding door … I couldn’t open it. Is this a push door? No. So after I rattled and made a disruption, I was so ashamed I turned around. The second time I went in, it was about 10 p.m., and the bartender said, “We're closed now.” I was like, “Really? I finally got the door open!” The third time was when I finally met you.

Rita Sodi: It was 2008. She introduced herself. She was coming into the restaurant asking (now I know) silly questions, like, “Oh, which linen company do you use?” Of course, she didn't need me to tell her that. She was creating an excuse to talk. After I found out that she was a chef, I also found out I had eaten her food many times [at] Il Buco, Giorgione … Every time people were saying to me, “The food is fantastic.” And it was Jody everywhere. She was always the chef.

Williams: But what did you think of my menus and my food?

Sodi: When I read the menu at Morandi, I was like, “This chef knows what she's talking about.”

Williams: Well, you probably said, “The chef knows what he's talking about.” In those days, I would hear in the restaurant, “Is the chef here? Can we meet him?” I’d hear it in Italian and in English — that’s just the way it was. So it was always a really special moment to say hi, be fluent in Italian, and bust their bubble … One of the first gifts I gave you was a chef jacket embroidered white on white [with] “Rita Sodi,” which she washed so many times it just fell apart.

Sodi: And you gave me my knife kit. I still have it.

What are some differences between your tastes or approaches?

Sodi: I’m very Italian, so I approach every kind of food very slowly and very ... I don’t know how to say it. How do I approach food, Jody?

Williams: Well, you are very Tuscan. I lived in Italy for over five years, but I never could be a Tuscan or a Roman. I was curious about every region. Whereas your goal was to do a restaurant that would pay homage to your family, your mother, your heritage, and add something to this dialogue of eating that had those truths to it.

Rita’s a purist. Like meat sauce: four hours, lid on, the recipe, the grams … She’s a purist. And I tend to be like, “Let's just get it going.” I’m a little more loose and it seems like I never do anything twice the same way. I can’t resist the temptation to improvise. When Rita does coffee in the morning, it’s with a scale. She weighs the water, weighs the sugar.

Sodi: We don’t have to talk about this…

Did it take a long time for you to hit a good flow together?

Williams: It was, I will say, instant flow, instant caring, instant attraction. You need help? I’m there. You worked at I Sodi, I worked at Buvette, and we joked —

Sodi: We wanted to see each other.

Williams: She’s calling in the orders at 1 a.m. That was life. And we joked, “If we want to see each other, we should probably open a restaurant together.” And we looked down the block and said, “Let's go see if we can do that.” We didn't know what it was going to be, but we knew we were going to pull on our experiences and our strengths. [This would become Via Carota.]

Is there anything you feel people still don’t understand about your partnership?

Williams: I just don't want them to know anything! We don't do a lot of interviews or talks. We just did a cookbook, so we’re getting more comfortable with it. But what do I want people to know … Jody who? Rita who?

Sodi: When we go in the restaurant, we’re like ghosts. We stay in the kitchen. If I know people, I'm not going to the table to say hi. They came here to eat with their friend. They're not here to talk to me. I feel like it's an invasion of their privacy.

Williams: It's nice to see people, but to interrupt someone and say, “Oh, I just want to say hi; I'm so happy you're here” — it would be so presumptuous. You know how busy people are in this city.

Sodi: The story is the restaurant.

Williams: The story is the guests.

What is one food or dish that reminds you of the other?

Sodi: I’m sure I will answer the wrong one and you’ll say, “Oh, you remember me for this?”

Williams: I have so many beautiful Rita dishes: fried artichokes, your peas. At home we're going to have just one bowl of something. And lately we’re just standing up, over the counter, eating out of one bowl. We may even pass the spoon back and forth. And I’m like, “Rita, do we have time to make peas?” “No, it’s late. Peas cook for 45 minutes.” But when those peas cook for 45 minutes, with the two garlic and the pepper and the olive oil and they're cooked to this creamy wonderful dish … I love eating that bowl of peas! And the spinach. I’ll just eat a bowl of your chopped, cooked, long spinach. Meat sauce. I can eat it cold. With Parmesan. You have such a light touch with all your broths.

Sodi: Oh my God. You really love what I do!

Williams: Yeah, I do! And we're really picky, right? When we make a bad meal for each other, we’re pissed. Eating and drinking, it means something. This lunch sucked? We’re going to lunch again. Otherwise I'm going to have a bad day. What are your dishes?

Sodi: Oh, Jody — all the salads, risotto. Salad in general, grilled vegetables, grilled fish, your pork chop.

Williams: You don’t like my curry?

Sodi: Oh, curry, yes. I forgot, I’m sorry.

Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch

Founders of architecture and design firm Roman and Williams — together for 29 years.

What were your first impressions of each other?

Stephen Alesch: I was interviewing for this job and the producer said, “You’ve got to meet Robin, she'll see if you're worthy.” So I went to the office. [After an hour of waiting], she comes charging in totally hot, totally energized because she's just been at some big production meeting bossing people around. This beautiful, young, kind-of-goth New Yorker. When I say goth, I mean a real goth — not a decorated goth, like an LA goth — but a real gothic person, like Gotham City. A beautiful New York woman. I was just in awe. And she loved my drawings.

Robin Standefer: His drawings came a few days before. They were so extraordinary. I have a fascination with beautiful drawings, that sense of draftsmanship in the hand — from [Albrecht] Dürer to [Leonardo] Da Vinci, the lyrical quality of the line. I saw this beautiful red leather boot and these big shoulders and this plaid shirt and this beautiful blonde hair, and I thought: You can’t be the guy. He's so cute. I was really taken aback. The romance started by our love for what you make, an artistic partnership. We worked together for two years before we got involved.

What are some specific spaces you feel convey a particular contrast or fusion in vision?

Alesch: The NoMad London. Right across the street from the opera house, there’s this courthouse where people were sent to prison. It’s a kind of brooding, intense police headquarters that was abandoned and turned into this hotel with beautiful, powerful, romantic architecture. But for oppressive use. It was so fun to change it into romantic use. A prisoner’s dream is what I think about, especially when we took the courtroom, where people were sentenced, and painted a skyscape over all the wood paneling. We painted the whole thing with clouds, almost as if a person who's being sentenced was just given absolute freedom.

Standefer: That kind of relationship is one that drives our practice. I mean, even [The Guild] was a boarded up Citibank, all plastic. But underneath was one of the first department stores in New York City. The bones, we had to let them out. It’s driven by our combined curiosity, which is pretty relentless. We used to work at night together.

Alesch: Like 8 p.m. till 1 a.m., we just sketched.

Standefer: Which didn't go that well for the other partners we both had at the time.

Alesch: They were jealous.

What are some words of wisdom for couples who also collaborate?

Standefer: There is not a dinner party that we go to — this is, 30 years in — where people don’t say: How do you do it?

Alesch: “I could never spend the whole day with my wife.”

Standefer: We're like … That might be a deeper problem. Look, there are challenges in all relationships.

Alesch: But that’s actually simple, too. If your tastes don’t align, it doesn’t even matter. You still should partner up because maybe your two conflicting tastes make the most beautiful space together. Whether one person likes clean, sharp angles and the other one likes roundy, romantic things, the mix is the most beautiful thing.

We’re talking [about collaborating with your partner] in modern terms, but I actually think it’s a very ancient tradition — a pumpkin farmer and his wife growing pumpkins and taking them to market. You can’t just abandon the pumpkin farm. It’s full commitment. It’s family.

Standefer: Our advice in a nutshell? Put all your eggs in one basket. That’s the advice! One basket!

Alesch: I always think of being on a ship that’s being attacked and putting yourselves back to back and fighting. That’s what a partner is, right? You’re a superhuman, because you’re two.

What’s your favorite love story?

Standefer: [Alfred] Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe. Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. Sophie Taeuber and Jean Arp. These beautiful relationships really moved me because they helped each other work and often worked together.

Alesch: “The Gift of the Magi.” They're secretly selling these valuable things to give the other person this beautiful gift. It ends with them realizing that none of that matters. Love is the most important thing. When I was 10 years old, I was thinking, “One day I’ll be in love like that.”

JP Park and Ellia Park

Owner and executive chef and co-founder, respectively, of restaurants Atomix, Atoboy, and Naro — together for 12 years.

What is one of your favorite love stories — real or fiction?

Ellia Park: The movie “If Only.” The story is about how, if the person you love disappears, your life is going to be so changed. I thought about this because after I married JP, my life, my happiness level changed so much. We came to America just the two of us. All our family and friends are in Korea. We started from zero and had to lean on each other.

What are your words of wisdom for couples who are also collaborators?

JP Park: We respect each other's spaces really well. She’s never crossed the line about the food or the kitchen. And I don't cross the line with her position, with the front of house or the wine program.

What are the similarities or differences between each of your working styles?

Ellia Park: JP is what I am not. He's very, very artsy. He’s very creative. He wants to change things. He wants something new. I’m more realistic. I’m very structured. JP is more free.

JP Park: If we are building a restaurant, like Atomix, I'm mostly making the big concept, or the crazier kind of conceptual things. And then she’s the person making everything actually happen. She makes everything move forward.

Ellia Park: If this is our show: JP is the director and I'm the producer.

What are the happiest memories you share?

JP Park: When Atomix won World's 50 Best Restaurants, it was a very meaningful moment. Also when Atomix got two Michelin stars, and the opening of Naro. When we signed the contract, it didn’t feel real. Rockefeller Center is a landmark in New York City. And when we moved here 10 years ago, we didn't know anyone. Now opening a restaurant in Rockefeller Center in the middle of the city ... wow.

Ellia Park: It was our 10-year wedding anniversary last year, so we traveled to Paris for four nights. We promised we would not talk about work. We just enjoyed our time. That was a happy moment; we stayed at the Ritz.

JP Park: The day after getting married back in Korea, we went to our families to say goodbye. The next day we moved to New York City. So that's the reason I call this our honeymoon. We’ve been on a honeymoon for 10 years.

What are some sides of each other others don’t get to see?

JP Park: Our restaurant people are a little bit scared of Ellia. She has a tiger mom side. But at home, she's more soft and gentle. When she watches dramas, sometimes she cries.

Ellia Park: I am an emotional person. I try not to be emotional at work.

JP Park: She really cares about family. She calls her sister, father, and mother almost every day. I barely talk with my family — maybe once a month.

Ellia Park: My answer is totally opposite. People think, “Oh, JP is very open, he’s flexible, he’s very cool.” But actually he’s very stubborn. If he decides something, he’s never going to change. No one can change his mind, except for me.

What’s the story behind your wedding bands?

JP Park: It was our 10-year wedding anniversary gift to each other — new wedding rings from Tiffany.

Ellia Park: When we got married, we didn’t have any money. So our wedding and rings, altogether — we spent about $2,000. I didn’t really care about the jewelry, and we had to save money to move here and find a home.

JP Park: So these are our 10-year, hardworking, payback wedding gifts.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.