SAN DIEGO, CA – A local man’s attempt to impress his date with a home-cooked, gourmet meal went up in flames—literally—when he accidentally set his kitchen, his dinner, and part of his own hair on fire.

Tom Waverly, 29, had invited his date, Emily Brooks, over for what he promised would be a “Michelin-star-worthy” meal. There was just one problem: Waverly had never successfully cooked anything more complicated than instant ramen.

“I figured, how hard could it be?” Waverly said. “I watched a few YouTube videos. Gordon Ramsay made it look easy.”

His meal of choice? Steak flambé with a red wine reduction.

“That’s when I should’ve realized I was out of my league,” Waverly admitted. “Anything with flambé in the name is a bad idea if you don’t know how to use fire.”

The disaster started almost immediately.

While attempting to sear the steak, Waverly misjudged how much oil to use—poured in half the bottle—and immediately created a grease fire.

Panicked, he did the worst possible thing: he threw water on it.

“The fire laughed at me,” he said. “Like, it actually got bigger.”

At this point, his date had just arrived and rang the doorbell.

“I opened the door with one hand while trying to smother flames with a dish towel in the other,” Waverly recalled. “I was sweating and smelled like burnt steak.”

Thinking quickly, Brooks grabbed a fire extinguisher from the hallway, pulled the pin, and sprayed it directly at the fire. Unfortunately, Waverly was still in the way.

“The flames went out, but so did half of my eyebrows,” he said. “I looked like a surprised cartoon character.”

Once the chaos settled, the two stood in Waverly’s now smoke-filled kitchen, staring at the charred remains of what was supposed to be dinner.

That’s when the fire alarm went off.

Neighbors, thinking the building was actually burning down, called the fire department. Within minutes, two firefighters arrived to find Waverly covered in extinguisher foam, his stove ruined, and his date holding back laughter.

One firefighter reportedly asked, “So… what were you trying to make?”

Embarrassed but undeterred, Waverly salvaged the night with DoorDash and an apology.

“We ate takeout on the balcony, and honestly, it was the best part of the night,” Brooks said. “Watching Tom panic and flail around with a dish towel was also pretty entertaining.”

Despite the flaming disaster, Brooks agreed to a second date—as long as Waverly promises never to cook again.