Ms. Le Thi Hong (Hanoi) and Mr. Ivo Fischer (Switzerland) got engaged on Christmas 2022. They both live in Switzerland and Vietnam to experience and understand each other, creating the premise to build a sustainable family life.

Ms. Hong and her fiancé mostly work from home. They spend a lot of time cooking together.

During daily meals, Ivo is usually the one in charge of the kitchen. Ms. Hong is in charge of setting the dishes and preparing drinks. For Ms. Hong, family meals are very meaningful.

“Before, my husband and I often ate out. But gradually, we realized that cooking for ourselves would be more delicious and more to our taste. We could also freely decorate the dishes according to our creativity,” she shared.

Disagreement on cooking

When he was single, Ivo loved cooking. He prioritized organic ingredients and limited the use of spices in his cooking to maintain healthy eating habits.

Meanwhile, Ms. Hong is used to seasoning food with a lot of MSG and oyster sauce. She said: “Every time I cook, my husband asks his wife not to add MSG and oyster sauce. This makes me feel uncomfortable, and the food lacks flavor.”

Recently, Ms. Hong secretly added seasoning powder to her stir-fried vegetables and was discovered by her husband. After that, the two had to sit down together and discuss nutrition frankly. According to her husband, MSG and oyster sauce are both processed ingredients that are not good for health.

Ivo asked Hong to join the challenge of “30 days of cooking for my wife”. He wanted to prove to his wife that all dishes would still be delicious, beautiful and flavorful without using unhealthy spices.

30 days no duplicate meals

During the 30 days of the challenge, before each meal, Ivo always proactively consulted his wife's preferences and eating desires. Next, he made a list of necessary foods, and regularly went to the supermarket twice a day.

In addition to vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, and milk, he also buys a variety of dried and frozen foods and stores them in the kitchen so he can cook them at any time. With the criteria of being healthy, delicious, and beautifully presented, Ivo is quite meticulous when preparing food.

He uses three cutting boards to prepare food. One is for cutting meat, one is for cutting vegetables, and the other is for cutting fruit. Ivo only uses purely organic spices for his cooking, such as turmeric powder, ginger powder, pink salt, cinnamon powder, etc., or powders derived from plants.

The daily menu varies from European to pure Vietnamese. Meals include meat dishes, vegetables, soups, and fruit for dessert. During the 30 days he cooked for his wife, he changed the menu constantly, without any duplicate meals.

In addition to the main meal, he will change the menu with noodles, hot pot, pizza or bread, dumplings... to help his wife eat more deliciously. If there is any leftover food from each meal, he carefully wraps it in foil, puts it in the refrigerator and only uses it within 24 hours and does not leave it for too long.

Despite being so elaborate, the time it takes him to prepare a meal is quite fast, only about 15 - 30 minutes. The cost of each meal is about 350 - 600 thousand VND (calculated according to the cost of living in Switzerland).

Although he cooked by himself, Ms. Hong's husband did not encounter any difficulties during the challenge. In fact, Ivo had many ideas to show off his talent. Ms. Hong confided: "Sometimes I had to encourage him to cook less because his wife was too full and could not eat."

Thanks to participating in the challenge with her husband, Ms. Hong feels grateful and admires her husband for his resourceful and hard-working cooking skills. He always puts his heart into every meal to bring delicious, healthy and good-for-your-health dishes.

Despite his busy work outside, her husband is still willing to arrange time to take care of the family. In the evening, the couple leisurely cooking is always a small joy in her day.

“These days, it is rare to find a man who is willing to work hard in the kitchen. Therefore, my parents always remind me to appreciate him more,” Ms. Hong shared.