If you come for Michelle Obama’s magnetic poise, like I did, you’ll stay for the array of entertainment packed into one little show for kids. Simply dazzling. Netflix gives us music, animation, kid-friendly recipes from famous chefs plus two little food loving puppets you can’t help but root for, called of course, Waffles and Mochi.
(Side note: Have your kids tried Mochi yet? This excellent Japanese import combines a little scoop of ice cream wrapped in sticky rice paper. Flavors like strawberry, chocolate and mango are available at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Costco (sometimes) and now even our Food Lion carries them. Delicious. And as it turns out, adorable as a puppet. Who knew?)
The total effect is so charming that even my skeptical soon-to-be twelve-year-old, who worried it would be “too babyish”, became a believer about two minutes in.
You also get cool life lessons. In episode one, Waffles asks “what does it mean to be deaf?” Our fluffy little pals visit a pizzeria run by an entirely deaf staff where they get a demonstration in both sign language and wood fired pizza. Both are matter-of-fact and one made me look up the cost of bricks for a particular home improvement project.
Puppets, check. Celebrities, check. Very talented chefs, check. (Like Samin Nosrat, who we already loved from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. She inspired our favorite focaccia bread recipe!) But there’s also music. From actual pop stars including Sia, who sings a tomato anthem called “I’m a Fruit” in such a catchy way that my kids have begged to hear it five times. So far.
Waffles and Mochi even includes a fundraising element, called Pass the Love, aimed at providing a million meals to families in need with fresh, delicious recipes and ingredients.
Which means, of course, you get cooking!
Every episode has a couple of recipes including Teamwork Cornbread, Magic Pickles, Tomato Candy and more.
It’s comfort food. Ethnic food. Food that looks so mouth-watering I can’t wait to make myself. Guess who else wants to make these new foods? My kids.
And that’s the idea.
“It was an obsession to get puppets eating, it’s simple as that. The end goal has always been to get kids excited about food,” explains Erika Thormahlen, who created the Netflix show with Jeremy Konner, to Bon Appetite. “I think in some ways we’re not a cooking show—we’re an eating show, because we want kids to get in the kitchen and play with their food, and investigate, and take ownership over what ends up on their plate. I was a picky eater and I know a lot of us probably had our likes and dislikes growing up, and I think if we had had a show like this when we were little, dinnertime would not have been so stressful.”
Sound familiar? I love that the aim is so simple.
“Waffles and Mochi is a show about a love of food. It’s not a love of healthy food,” Konner adds. “It’s a love letter to food in general, foods from all around the globe. There’s this healthy side effect when you start cooking at home, and the goal isn’t necessarily to eat more vitamins or work your way up the food pyramid. It’s simply to be excited to get in the kitchen and cook with your friends and family.”
Sound fun?
It is.
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