Call it culinary catfishing.
Getting persnickety kids to eat a home-cooked meal can feel like pulling teeth. But one enterprising parent devised an ingenious way to get hers to eat the foods of her labor sans complaint — by packing up the vittles to make them think it’s takeout.
“We ordered in food, this is an Italian place,” fibbed Alex MacLaren in the video, which currently boasts over 2.9 million views on TikTok.
The clever parent then busted out containers tortellini minestrone, chicken cacciotori with rice, and homemade cheesecake.
“Who wants soup and who wants chicken?” inquires MacLaren, as the kids clamor for their dinner.
The youngsters happily tucked in, completely oblivious to the fact that their meal was homemade — like a reverse version of “Mrs. Doubtfire’s” titular character pawning off gourmet takeout as her own cooking.
MacLaren told Newsweek she was surprised her family swallowed the tale hook, line and sinker — as she’d “actually made this meal a few times before.”
“They all liked it, but since they’ve eaten this before I wasn’t surprised about that,” she said.
MacLaren that her kids aren’t “overly picky” — despite having their preferences — but thought the bait and switch would be fun as her children get so excited when they order takeout.
“Takeout for a family can be expensive, so we don’t order in often,” she lamented.
Commenters were amazed over McLaren’s hack.
“As a human, be ashamed. As a mom, you’re my hero!!!!” enthused one fan.
“This definitely would have worked on me as a kid. I love it,” said another.
“I fear this would work on me as an adult,” quipped a third.
“My mother would do this to me when I was younger!” one exclaimed. “Until I realized the ‘takeout’ my dad brought home was the same food I caught my mom making in the kitchen.”
MacLaren says hopes to deploy this false advertising trick in the future — but acknowledges she’ll have to choose her shots wisely.
“Since at least one of my kids is usually home with me at any given time, I don’t know how often I’ll be able to make a fake-out take-out without them noticing,” she said. “I’ll definitely try it again when I get the chance, though.”
This hack is especially timely given the skyrocketing costs of delivery orders.
A September Finance Buzz experiment found that ordering a meal off Grubhub, Doordash, UberEats and other delivery firms can cost almost double what it would to go out and collect it yourself — largely due to the number of fees, suggested tips and other costs that come with delivery in the modern age.