Imagine walking on the streets and someone walks up to you and asks you cook them a meal in your home.
We’re guessing unless you’re a great chef and proud of your home, most of your answers would be “hell no”, right?
So we don’t know what gave ex-Mediacorp actor Ian Fang the confidence to start his new show, IF Goes to Your Home, which aims to get 100 mums to cook a meal for him in their homes.
In the show’s second ep, the 34-year-old shared that he really struggled to find a willing chef.
For the first ep, Ian managed to get a home-cooked meal from a granny, Madam Lu, whom he met at Bendemeer Shopping Mall.
Though Madam Lu did not know who the actor was when he went up to her, she eventually still brought him home, where she made him celery pork dumplings.
Ian wasn’t so lucky on his second visit to Bendemeer Shopping Mall. All the aunties he approached had different reasons to turn him down.
“I’m not free,” said one auntie while another shot back: “My house is dirty.”
Another auntie even straight up told Ian to “stop filming [her]” before turning away from the camera.
“I’ve barely been rejected in my life. I’m afraid of getting rejected again… that will make me feel embarrassed,” lamented Ian.
Unfortunately, that was what happened.
Basically, he’d approached more than 10 aunties that day, but did not get a single “yes”.
In an interview with Chinese media zaobao.sg, Ian explained that he decided to start this series after getting inspiration from Chinese reality shows Let’s Eat Dinner Together (2016), Darling, Mealtime (2019) and Amazing Dinner (2020), as well as Malaysian series A Challenge To Visit 100 Mums’ Houses For A Meal.
Before filming, Ian believed he wouldn’t have any issues finding people to cook for him.
“I thought it was going to be very easy. If an artiste wants to go to someone’s house for a meal, they would probably ‘give face’ right?” he reasoned.
Reality, it seems, turned out to be really humbling.
“In the end, I was rejected more than 10 times. I even wanted to give up at some point,” he said.
It is, however, understandable why people would have qualms about having him over.
“They would recognise me and want to take photos, but once I ask [them to invite me over for a meal], they would hesitate. I guess it’s a privacy issue. They don’t want strangers visiting their homes.”
When asked if he’s worried that people would accuse him of taking advantage of others by asking for free meals, Ian explained that he’s willing to pay for the food.
“It’s okay if they cook Maggi noodles for me too. Actually my team can pay for the groceries, or bring some rice or cooking oil to their homes. We can’t go over empty-handed anyway,” he said.
After all, the main purpose of the show, according to Ian, was to find those who have lost their partners or don’t have children by their side, and listen to their life stories, not so much about what dishes they can whip up.