Archive · 30 Aug 2026
Instagram Reels Challenge the Sacred Idea of Ma’s Cooking
Many Indian families say a mother’s cooking is special because it shows love.
Recently, some Instagram users have started making jokes that restaurant food tastes better.
One creator even said outside food gives him twice as much happiness.
Other videos show mothers enjoying café food instead of cooking at home.
Some people say this may simply mean mothers need a break from cooking.
The article says the old idea was never only about taste.
It also connected mothers with unpaid household work and love.
The new jokes challenge those expectations and treat parents as ordinary people rather than perfect figures.
Viral Instagram reels and comments are jokingly rejecting the traditional praise of “ma ke haath ka khaana.”
Creators including Sahil Baddi, Pooja Kaur and Harsh Shrivastava compare home cooking unfavorably with restaurant or self-cooked food.
Some reels portray mothers enjoying pizzas, pasta and cold coffee while appearing tired of cooking.
The article argues that home cooking has symbolized maternal love and unpaid kitchen labor more than culinary quality.
The trend also questions Bollywood-style ideas of parental reverence and gendered expectations around mothers’ cooking.
- Who
- Instagram creators, commenters, and mothers featured in viral reels, including Sahil Baddi, Pooja Kaur and Harsh Shrivastava.
- What
- A viral social-media trend is mocking or rejecting the traditional cultural reverence for “ma ke haath ka khaana,” or a mother’s home-cooked food.
- When
- The article describes this as a current viral trend on Instagram; no specific date is given.
- Where
- On Instagram reels and in their comment sections.
- Why
- The trend reflects changing attitudes toward home cooking, restaurant food, maternal labor and traditional expectations about parents and women.
Traditional View
Revisionist View
Meaning of home cooking
Traditional View
A mother’s cooking represents love, family tradition and a connection to home.
Revisionist View
The phrase often romanticizes unpaid domestic labor and does not guarantee that the food tastes better.
Restaurant food versus home food
Traditional View
Home-cooked meals are traditionally treated as superior to bought or ordered food.
Revisionist View
The viral reels openly prefer fast food, restaurant meals and other outside food.
Expectations of mothers
Traditional View
Mothers are culturally expected to show care by preparing food for the family.
Revisionist View
Mothers should be able to stop cooking, enjoy café food and be treated as ordinary people rather than idealized caregivers.
- Central phrase
- “Ma ke haath ka khaana” means a mother’s home-cooked food and is commonly associated with love.
- Platform
- Viral creator
- Sahil Baddi posted a reel praising outside food over his mother’s cooking.
- Featured mother
- Pooja Kaur’s mother was shown enjoying pizzas, pasta and cold coffee at cafés.
- Labor critique
- The article says the phrase can tie mothers to unpaid responsibility for cooking.
- Cultural references
- The discussion invokes Amitabh Bachchan, Baghban and Sridevi’s English Vinglish.