Waffles + Mochi | Official trailer

I watched the first episode of this. I was wondering who the familiar looking lady was from the trailer and I was rather thrown back when she introduced herself as "Mrs. Obama"; I guess I don't look at the pictures much when I read the news.

While this is definitely a show meant for children, I found watching it to be very refreshing. It's got segments with professional/celebrity chefs and they look genuinely pleased to be there. It's perhaps something I would recommend to watch on a day when you're particularly fed up with humanity.

It's a fantastic show for kids.

Michelle Obama's new Netflix show 'Waffles + Mochi' comes to Oakland, San Francisco

“Waffles + Mochi,” follows the adventures of two best friends: Waffles, who is half-yeti and half-frozen waffle, and Mochi, a small, pink, round mochi who speaks in “meeps” and purrs. They live in the Land of Frozen Food, with dreams of becoming famous chefs — they watch reruns of Julia Child cooking on their television — but instead, all they can cook is, well, ice. When they escape their frozen home, they begin working at a grocery store run by “Mrs. O” (otherwise known as Michelle Obama to those not living in a frozen cave) where they learn all about fresh foods, like tomatoes, pickles and eggs.

... there was an extraordinary amount of work and conscious decision-making that went in, on the part of the people making the show, to put people in front of and behind the camera and stories on screen that represent the broadest possible part of humanity,”

How Do You Feed a Puppet? Behind the Tasty Edutainment of Waffles + Mochi

Puppets are heavy travelers, it seems: “There are so many human bodies and things required to make puppets look simple,” Thormahlen adds. When they filmed on a gondola in Venice, she was convinced that the mass of camera operators and puppeteers involved in shooting the scene was going to sink the boat.

'Waffles + Mochi' Creators Can't Believe They Got Michelle Obama to Star, Either

Despite the challenges inherent in shooting all around the world — “We were essentially designing the plane while flying it,” Konner notes — it’s that fly-by-night sense of experimentation that adds to the show’s charm, and introduces puppets to a lot of settings you don’t otherwise find them. “There’s a reason you don’t see a ton of puppets on mountaintops in the Andes,”

The puppets travel the world to experience the way that other cultures enjoy foods that are common to them. They visit farms and restaurants, pick potatoes in the Andes and sip Miso in Japan, and they even get to cook with a few highly reputable chefs.

How the ‘Waffles + Mochi’ Puppets Were Built to Eat

“I did not think I would be eating soup as a puppet,” Zamora tells Variety. “Puppets usually don’t touch human food because it’s just not practical: you could ruin the puppet, why would you want to do that? Just make a foam cookie or what-not — usually just something that looks like food and they go, ‘Om nom nom nom nom.’ With Waffles, the challenge was that we really wanted to see her experience these foods — and doing it in a way that wasn’t gross.”

“She’s able to actually eat anything you put in her mouth. She had a hidden pocket, and it’s wipeable, so we could wipe it down in between takes. I also created this glove that I could put on in case she had to eat something that was hot,” Zamora says.

One of the biggest lessons Zamora learned from this way of working was that “the experience of tasting is not as connected” if she couldn’t try the food alongside Waffles. So they rigged the set in a way that Zamora could eat, as well, and therefore deliver honest and perfectly timed reactions. “I was able to taste every single thing that Waffles taste and respond in a way that was very true and real. I was getting spoon-fed tortellini from Massimo Bottura — world-renowned chefs!”

After each episode, the puppets earn a new food badge from Mrs O. I am always amazed at how incredibly warm Mrs Obama seems. It makes me also want to earn a food badge from Mrs O.