It’s a situation all cat owners know: you buy your feline friend something new to eat, probably in bulk, and you place it in front of the world’s pickiest animal and hope. Oh how you hope. “Please eat this! I bought so many cans, and they weren’t cheap. I don’t know what you want from me! Just let me love you!”

The suspense is terrible, which is why this video of a chef making his cat a special, gourmet meal might seem like a fun little exercise in fancy cat food preparation, but is actually the greatest suspense movie of all time.

Chef Jun says he normally only makes his cat Kohaku a special meal on Kohaku’s birthday, but he made an exception after getting so many requests to do so from viewers of his YouTube channel JunsKitchen. So he got to work preparing a dish of fish and chicken that looks like it was meant to be served to judges on Top Chef and not a potentially finicky cat that’d just as easily enjoy a live mouse for dinner.

Adding to the inherent suspense of the whole thing was how his cat was close by him the entire time, watching, waiting, judging. After Chef Jun finished he gave Kohaku two options: the expertly crafted homemade entree or some store bought dry food.

If you aren’t a cat person and aren’t familiar with what is happening here then you might not recognize the emotions you experience watching this. That feeling you get right before Kohaku chooses is dread—pure unadulterated dread.

If you don’t want to know how it ended make sure you watch the video before proceeding…

…

…

…

Oh thank the lord. Somehow the very existence of hope itself depended on what plate of food that cat chose, and now we can once again breathe easy knowing that anything is possible. Because if one cat can eat the nice thing put in front of them without incident, literally any dream can come true.

If you’re wondering what exactly went into the dish and how to make it for your own furry feline friend, Jun shared the recipe and instructions. It calls for sea bream (a type of fish), salmon, chicken, yellow fin tuna, bonito stock soup, and catnip powder (make sure to trim all the fat off the meat and fish). Then you:

1.  Boil all the meat and fish for about a minute or two until they’re cooked.
2. Put them in a cold water and cool them down.
3. Chop them into tiny pieces.
4. Put the paste in a round mold (or a cup if you don’t have a mold!)
5. Add bonito stock soup and sprinkle some catnip powder.

He also says to pre-test your cat’s preferences and “do research on which ingredients are okay and not okay to use,” as well as making sure you know “how much and how often to feed” your cat. (Which is hopefully something you know already.)

But for now cat owners everywhere can bask in the glory that is a cat actually eating the thing we got them. Let us revel in a world where we don’t have to worry about them turning away from the thing they always love, leaving us confused and angry. Especially since it will be time to feed them again soon enough, and the chances of it going this smoothly are close to zero. Though, as we now know, not completely zero. Now we have hope.

What’s the best “picky cat” story you have? Share it with us in the comments below.

Images: JunsKitchen