Former first lady and good food advocate Michelle Obama stars in a new Netflix show aimed at inspiring kids to get creative in the kitchen. The show—Waffles + Mochi—is named after its two main characters: Waffles, a blue-and-white-haired puppet with frozen waffles for ears, and Mochi, a small purple blob resembling the Japanese treat.
Producers hope the show will inspire kids and adults to start cooking and help connect cultures across the world through food.
Waffles and Mochi dream of one-day becoming chefs, but they hail from the Land of Frozen Food and have only ever cooked with ingredients made of ice. That’s until Obama hires the two “taste-buddies” to work at her supermarket.
“If you want to be great chefs, you have to learn about all different kinds of foods,” she tells them in the show’s trailer. The duo then sets out in their Magicart on an international quest to experience new flavors.
According to Netflix, Waffles and Mochi are bound to pick potatoes in the Andes, taste spices in Italy, and make miso in Japan. They will travel to Savannah, San Francisco, and Seoul.
Waffles and Mochi’s journey takes them to kitchens, restaurants, and farms, where they will taste ingredients that are spicy and mouth-puckeringly sour, and cook alongside famous chefs, home cooks, kids, and celebrities.
The show’s star-studded cast includes Jack Black, Rashida Jones, Common, Zach Galifianakis, Tan France, Gaten Matarazzo, Sia, and Mandy Moore, as well as famed food personalities like José Andrés, Massimo Bottura, and Samin Nosrat.
“This is something I’ve been working on for a while now, and I’m so excited to finally be able to tell you all about it,” Obama writes in an Instagram announcement about the show. “It’s all about good food: discovering it, cooking it, and of course, eating it. These two will take us on adventures all around the world to explore new ingredients and try out new recipes.”
Waffles + Mochi will be available to stream starting March 16.
Photo courtesy of Ketut Subiyanto, Pexels
