LOS ANGELES, CA – A man’s attempt to impress his new date with a gourmet home-cooked meal turned into a fiery disaster when he accidentally set his kitchen ablaze—twice.

Ethan Parker, 29, had invited his date, Olivia Mitchell, over for a romantic dinner, hoping to showcase his “culinary skills” and prove he was husband material.

“I told her I loved to cook,” Parker admitted. “Which was technically true, if you count microwaving ramen as cooking.”

Determined to fake it till he made it, Parker picked an ambitious dish—pan-seared salmon with a white wine reduction.

“Seemed fancy enough,” he said. “How hard could it be?”

Very, very hard, as it turns out.

Disaster #1: The Flaming Salmon

The trouble began when Parker cranked his stove to full blast—an unnecessary step that immediately turned his salmon into a blazing inferno.

“One second, it was sizzling beautifully, and the next, it looked like a special effect from a Fast & Furious movie,” he said.

Panicked, Parker grabbed a bottle of water and dumped it onto the fire, completely forgetting that water and hot oil do not mix.

“The flames shot up so high I lost an eyebrow,” Parker admitted.

Mitchell, watching from the dining table, assumed it was all part of the show.

“I thought he was doing some kind of dramatic chef trick,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh wow, he really goes all out with the presentation.’”

Disaster #2: The Breadstick Explosion

After extinguishing the salmon debacle (and nearly losing his kitchen in the process), Parker decided to redeem himself with a simple side dish: garlic breadsticks.

“I figured, okay, I’ll just pop them in the oven. No fire involved. Foolproof, right?”

Wrong.

Parker accidentally set the oven to ‘self-clean’ mode instead of bake, turning the inside into a 900-degree inferno.

“I opened the door, and BOOM—smoke, heat, and what I’m pretty sure was a demonic presence escaped into my apartment.”

At this point, his smoke alarm was screaming, his date was coughing through a smoke cloud, and his neighbor was banging on the door yelling, ‘ARE YOU OKAY, DUDE?!’

Mitchell, however, was oddly impressed.

“Honestly? I had fun,” she said. “Most first dates are boring. This one felt like a reality show.”

The Aftermath: Takeout Saves the Day

With his apartment looking like a crime scene, Parker gave up and ordered takeout.

“We ate cold pizza on my fire-damaged couch while the fire department aired out my kitchen,” Parker said. “Not the night I planned, but honestly? Best date I’ve ever had.”

Miraculously, Mitchell agreed to a second date—on one condition.

“He’s not allowed to cook,” she said. “Ever.”