General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Waffles + Mochi

Waffles + Mochi is an American children's television series about food and cooking that premiered on Netflix on March 16, 2021. Produced by Higher Ground Productions, the production company of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, it was the first children's show to come out of the company and stars Michelle Obama alongside two puppet characters who travel the world learning about ingredients.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	March 16, 2021, on Netflix; the full 10-episode first season was released that day¹^•³
Production	Higher Ground Productions, the Obamas' company, in partnership with Netflix²
Creators	Erika Thormahlen and Jeremy Konner⁴
Main characters	Waffles, a half-Yeti/half-waffle puppet voiced by Michelle Zamora, and Mochi, a small nonverbal mochi ball voiced by Russ Walko¹
Format	Each episode centers on one ingredient, such as tomatoes, rice, or pickles, explored through global trips in the MagiCart¹
Rating	TV-Y; Common Sense Media rates it appropriate for age 4 and up¹
Reception	95% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer for season 1⁴
Spin-off	Waffles + Mochi's Restaurant, six episodes released October 17, 2022⁵

Spoilers

Premise and format

The two title characters come from the Land of Frozen Food, where they eat only ice cubes and their cooking experiments always produce ice. They hitch a ride to the ordinary world and take jobs at a grocery store owned by Mrs. O, played by Michelle Obama as a version of herself, with a produce garden on the roof. The store is populated by other talking puppets, including Shelfie the shelf and Intercommy the loudspeaker.¹^•⁶

Each of the ten first-season episodes focuses on a single ingredient: tomato, salt, potato, pickles, rice, egg, herbs and spices, corn, mushroom, and water. Waffles and Mochi ride the MagiCart, described as a shopping cart, go-kart, and rocket hybrid, to visit kitchens, farms, and restaurants around the world to learn how the ingredient grows and how it is cooked.¹^•⁷ Destinations named by Netflix include Italy, Japan, Peru, South Korea, and Uganda, with the puppets picking potatoes in the Peruvian Andes, sampling spices in Italy, and making miso in Japan.⁸

The show mixes live action, puppetry, stop-motion, and other animation. Musical interludes are built around each episode's ingredient, including an animated tomato in a Sia wig sung by Sia and an egg song performed by Jack Black; original songs were written by Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome of the comedy-folk duo Garfunkel and Oates.⁶

Guests and educational approach

Celebrity guests include chefs Samin Nosrat, who teaches about tomatoes in her Oakland garden, and José Andrés, who makes gazpacho in the Spanish tradition, along with Common, Rashida Jones, Tan France, and Zach Galifianakis.¹^•⁸ The rice episode traces how rice connects West Africa to the early United States through the culinary historian Michael W. Twitty, whose enslaved ancestors came from Sierra Leone, and the show also touches on refugees and features Indigenous salt harvesters in Peru.⁶

Teaching style. Common Sense Media describes the show as avoiding lecturing about healthy eating; instead it makes food appealing by emphasizing that it is delicious and fun to cook, while teaching food facts, how food grows, the cultural traditions of food, and cooking skills.¹ The New Yorker's review called it good educational television comparable to the best of PBS, noting its explanations of non-American food traditions.⁹ Time's review called it "the Sesame Street of food TV."

Production

Series creators Erika Thormahlen, a former actress who became an early childhood educator, and Jeremy Konner, co-creator of Drunk History, had known each other since their early twenties; the series culminated a 15-year-long dream for the pair. Research by Elinor Ochs, a professor of anthropology at UCLA who found that mealtimes are among families' most stressful moments, inspired the creators to turn food negotiations into a shared experience.⁸ Head puppeteer Michelle Zamora is self-taught and founded the company Viva la Puppet in 2014; Waffles and Mochi were built by Swazzle, while Viva la Puppet built Steve the Mop, Busy, and Shelfie. Waffles's mouth was built with a special opening so the puppet could "swallow" actual food, and Zamora was spoonfed bites during tasting scenes so her reactions were authentic.⁸

Michelle Obama announced the show on social media on February 9, 2021, describing it as "in many ways an extension of my work to support children's health" from her time as first lady.¹⁰

Related projects and spin-off

Alongside the premiere, the Partnership for a Healthier America launched the "Pass the Love w/ Waffles + Mochi" campaign, which aimed to bring 1 million meals inspired by the show to families around the country and shift food culture toward affordable home cooking.¹¹ Penguin Random House announced a publishing program with three children's titles and a cookbook for ages 3 to 7, beginning with the picture book Follow That Food! on March 2, 2021.¹² A half-hour holiday special, Waffles + Mochi's Holiday Feast, was released on November 23, 2021, featuring Michelle Obama, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Samin Nosrat.³

The spin-off Waffles + Mochi's Restaurant premiered on Netflix on October 17, 2022, with six episodes of about 20 minutes each. Waffles and Mochi run their own restaurant, visiting farms and food producers and learning to cook each episode's ingredient, such as honey, bread, bananas, cheese, and spice, from chefs including Samin Nosrat, Padma Lakshmi, and Marcus Samuelsson. The episodes were shortened and simplified for preschoolers, and Sarah Berman took over performing Waffles, giving the character what Common Sense Media describes as a sweeter quality than the original series.⁵^•¹³

Reception

Season 1 holds a 95% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.40/10 among critics, and a 64% audience score.⁴ The series received a Common Sense Selection award and nominations including a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Children's Episodic, Long Form and Specials, and a Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Children's Program.¹^•¹⁴ Parent reviewers on Common Sense Media praised the educational exploration of food and the diverse cast, while some wanted more practical recipes to accompany the episodes.¹⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Documentary, docudrama, and lifestyle series › Factual entertainment and specialist-interest formats › Premiered 2020 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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