How to pass list to google spreadsheet

Question

Trying to get the values of the list into a spreadsheet, but it only seems to be printing when i place it as a string( meal = str(meal())). OTHERWISE GETTING an error,

gspread.exceptions.APIError: {
  "error": {
    "code": 400,
    "message": "Invalid values[10][0]: list_value {\n  values {\n    string_value: \"Parmesan\"\n  }\n  values {\n    string_value: \"Pan-seared\"\n  }\n  values {\n    string_value: \"Oriental\"\n  }\n}\n",
    "status": "INVALID_ARGUMENT"
  }
}


#the code I need help with
parm = self.parm.get()
pan = self.pan.get()
ori = self.ori.get()
buff = self.buff.get()
def meal():
    selection = []
    if (parm ==1):
        selection.append("Parmesan")
    if (pan ==1):
        selection.append("Pan-seared")
    if (ori ==1):
        selection.append("Oriental")
    if (buff ==1):
        selection.append("Buffalo")
        return selection
    def total(meal):
        mealTot = len(meal)
        return mealTot
     meal = meal()
     global rowNum
     order.update_cell(rowNum, 8, total(meal))