No Doubt Gwen Remembers Gavin's Gift

By Stephen M. Silverman And Caris Davis

Friday November 21, 2003 01:40 PM EST

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British rocker Gavin Rossdale really knows how to give his wife a first anniversary she'll never forget.

Mrs. Rossdale just happens to be Gwen Stefani, 34, of No Doubt, and Rossdale, 36, got some help from famed London chef Georgio Locatelli for the occasion.

Locatelli, of London's haute cuisine Locanda Locatelli restaurant, tells PEOPLE: "Gavin and I were talking about magic moments in restaurants in movies. He mentioned 'Once Upon A Time In America,' the scene where the couple have the restaurant to themselves, and said: 'I'd really like to do something like that for Gwen.'"

Not impossible, responded the chef.

With their anniversary on a Sunday (normally Locatelli's day off), he cleared out his restaurant, leaving a table in the middle covered "with four full bags of rose petals, so it smelled beautiful." It then took 25 minutes for Locatelli and his staff to light all the candles -- some 400 of them.

Says Locatelli: "Gavin took Gwen back to the church, with the same driver they had on their wedding day. It was the end of the day ... and starting to get dark. He left her in the car for a moment with Winston, their dog, and came into the restaurant. Gwen knew nothing about all this. So Gavin said: 'How am I going to get her out of the car?'"

Leave it to animal instinct. "The dog got out of the car," says the chef. Then, "Gwen came in and saw what we'd done, and she cried and cried."

The best was yet to come: "I gave them about 12 courses, including spaghetti and octopus, which is one of her favorites. I did the cooking in the kitchen, and Roberto, their favorite waiter, bought the dishes out to them. Only three or four people knew about this. It was my gift to them."

To go with the food, Dom Perignon and Las Spinatta, a red wine. Winston wasn't forgotten, either. For the precious pooch came a garland of flowers.

"They stayed till about 1:30 in the morning," says Locatelli. "There was a fabulous energy between them."