He tried to impress her by cooking on their first date. Dinner was a disaster — but the night not so much

Since time immemorial, food has been a timeless love language for couples to nurture their bond. Somewhere between clinking of spoons, sprinkling of spices, pummelling of dough, and a burning flame, love unfurls in the kitchen. This is exactly what happened with Alyssa (@alyssa.naing), a 20-something woman from Amsterdam. To impress her on their first date, her boyfriend tried cooking risotto for her. Things took a hilarious turn when the risotto didn’t turn out as expected. A video of this instance shared by Alyssa shows how sometimes little slip-ups can end up giving romance a leg up.

"My boyfriend's [favorite] story to tell people is our first date when he showed up at my place with a bag full of groceries to make his famous risotto, and he f****d it up,” Alyssa wrote in the overlay caption of a video that has since been viewed 3 million times. The footage behind the overlay shows her boyfriend standing with his back towards the camera, wearing a black and white apron. He seems to be stirring something in a pan placed on the kitchen stove while the rest of the kitchen counter sprawls with utensils, a glass half filled with wine, a rolling pin, and other culinary items. After stirring the contents of the pan for a few moments, the man turns around, scratching his head, probably because he messed up the risotto.

In an interview with Newsweek, she shared that the messed-up risotto did end up strengthening their bond as a couple. Despite the bland taste, romance ignited and they fell in love. "He was the one who was like, 'Hey, this is not the best,' as we were eating," she said. "A little bland, I will be honest...we just dumped a bunch of pepper on it. But, I just loved watching him cook, and we had an amazing night together with great conversations,” the woman told the outlet.

A week after this date, Alyssa cooked for him, and he realized she cooked "really well." He ended up feeling even more embarrassed, even though Alyssa kept telling him, "No, it wasn’t that bad, you weren’t used to the kitchen." In the overlay text, Alyssa described that although her boyfriend "didn't impress [her] the way he wished he did, [she] still fell in love with him, and it means that I truly love him for who he is and not just for what he did." She shared that the guy loves telling the story of this episode because he wants to show off to people, saying, "Hey, this beautiful girl loves me for me."

Hundreds of people found Alyssa’s experience relatable. They flurried to the comments section to share their own first-date mishaps. “This was exactly how the second date with my partner happened,” wrote @lex. @idk.its.licy shared, “My parents' first date, my mom cooked him pesto pasta… used three heads of garlic instead of three cloves. Safe to say it was inedible.”

@anonymoose said, “May this love violently attack everybody in this comment section.” “Loves him for him, not the things he did,” said @soyuramens, reiterating the video’s sentiment. @luisangel__ reflected, “I think the effort means more than the end result. Just the fact that he wanted to spend time, money and energy on making you dinner as a first date is a huge green flag.” @presidante offered a suggestion, “Y’all better serve risotto at the wedding or something.”

You can follow Alyssa (@alyssa.naing) on TikTok for video logs from her everyday life.