How Italy Inspired Michelle Obama's ‘Waffles & Mochi’ Series

In Waffles & Mochi, two furry puppets fly around the world in a souped-up shopping cart on food missions for Michelle Obama, who plays a nurturing grocer and gardener. At one point, they take off on an egg hunt for Italy’s most famous chef, Massimo Bottura, and his son Charlie. Later, they float through Venice on a gondola, learning about Marco Polo’s spice trade legacy from Hamed, a restaurateur, and Gino, a spice merchant with a shop on the historic street, Ruga dei Spezieri.

Overcoming mistakes and close-calls, the puppets, who are frozen foods, soon embrace the versatility and dynamism of fresh ingredients, like a ripe tomato. With the guidance and care of the former First Lady, they explore a new world of food together, meeting culinary legends along the way.

Working with Michelle Obama and Higher Ground,  the Obama's production company, the creators of this new Netflix show, Jeremy Konner and Erika Thormahlen, were given space to dream up the “cutest characters," who travel to Italy not once, but twice. As we spoke, Konner and Thormahlen described how Italy serves as more than a destination—it's a cultural current that flows through the entire show.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Konner’s favorite eating memories involved close meals with family friends who happened to be Italian. At their table, kids were encouraged to eat what the adults ate, and there was no rush to finish the vegetables to get to dessert. In the summers, he even traveled with the family to Italy, spending happy days outside of Rome.

For co-creator Thormahlen, a former preschool teacher, the Reggio-Emilia philosophy on early childhood education proved invaluable for bringing the puppets' journey to life. Using the Italian teaching tenets, she made sure that Waffles and Mochi lived in a state of self-directed discovery and curiosity. 

Combining their past experiences, including Konner's recent frustrations with his toddler who refused to eat tomatoes, Waffles and Mochi share healthy and heartwarming moments united at the table.

Here, in an interview that has been condensed and edited, they discuss how Waffles & Mochi, which premiered on Netflix just last week, came to be, and what they hope families will learn from it.

How did your connection to Italy influence the show?

Konner: We always wanted to try and impart an Italian point of view into the American sensibilities and say, “Look, food is life, food is everything.” It's not just about things that are good or bad for you and finishing your food, so you get dessert. The Italian stuff that we gravitate towards in the show was the feeling of inclusiveness. Children are brought into the kitchen. Children are included and offered all of the food on the table. There’s no kids’ food and adult food. Erika, what am I missing here?

Thormahlen: [to Konner] Early on in our conversations while developing the show, Jeremy said, “Let's go meet with Elinor Ochs, a professor of anthropology,” who he was connected with through the Derrantes [his Italian family friends]. We had an amazing meeting with Elinor. She and her team embedded themselves in homes of American middle-class families and tracked their stress levels with saliva tests. Turns out, the time of day where it spiked across all households was dinner time. Jeremy reflected on his childhood memories of eating the Italian way, the relationships to food, and how different it was in terms of the pleasure of sitting down to dinner. Elinor has a quote that became the north star of the show.

Konner: Elinor said that when she’s asked about religion, she says, “Dinner is my religion.” We really just wanted to fix dinner for American families [with this show]. But this is a global phenomenon. In modern families, kids and parents are eating dinner at different times and eating out of convenience. Everyone is stressed out, because nobody is eating dinner together anymore. The inspiration we took from Italian eating and what we envision it to be was hoping to bring kids into the kitchens with their caregivers, cooking together and sitting down at a meal in a fun and exciting way.

Why did you decide on mochi and waffles? Did you test other commonly known foods, like pizza, on younger audiences?

Thormahlen: We love pizza. That's why it’s in our first episode. No, there was no testing. It was just out of the silly and cute combo that Jeremy and I fell in love with. That's the exciting thing about working with Higher Ground [the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama.] Jeremy and I got together after running into each other at a restaurant, where Jeremy said the fateful words, “I can’t get my kid to eat a tomato.” We cracked open our laptops and started riffing. We were as silly and wacky as we wanted to be. Waffles and Mochi came out of a desire to create the cutest characters that go on an adventure!

Konner: We wanted the puppets to come from a place where they had never really eaten food. [In the first episode, the puppets eat ice cubes and live in a frozen land.] So there was a moment when we were thinking they could be aliens, because we didn't want it to feel like Americans traveling the world coming from a particular country with a reference for the cuisine. The whole world is exciting and new for them, and it was important that they put themselves in some magical land where they were never able to eat food.

Let’s focus on the “Egg” episode when Michelle Obama asks the puppets to go on a world-wide egg hunt for Chef Massimo Bottura, so that he can make tortellini. How did this come to be?

Thormahlen: Modena is Massimo’s home base. I think we picked Massimo first, because we were identifying people in the food space that could speak to children and get them super-excited about food. Whenever you hear Massimo Bottura talk about Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or Balsamic vinegar, your mouth starts to water. We started learning more and more about Modena and all the amazing foods it's known for and that got us really excited. On top of that, we have this Emilio-Reggia educational philosophy that’s running throughout our show. Once upon a time, I was a preschool teacher– we took inspiration from that child-centered form of education. It’s led by the kids with a lot of sensory play, like cooking classes and getting kids up close with foods in a way that fostered independent curiosity.

In the episode, Massimo Bottura’s iconic lemon tart is used as an example of learning from accidents in the kitchen and embracing creativity. Did you consider any other dishes on the menu of Osteria Francescana?

Thormahlen: In the show, we have these socio-emotional lessons tied thematically to every ingredient. In our egg episode, it’s about moving through mistakes, especially in a kitchen. On Massimo’s menu, the lemon tart is the most famous. It’s also a dessert that seemed really fun for kids. Visually, it's very beautiful, and it naturally dovetailed with Mochi and Waffles delivering the broken egg.

Konner: He cooks the lemon tart and the tortellini. Those were both things that we thought were the most accessible to kids and the most playful.

Describe your first impressions of filming at Tortellante, the pasta-making shop founded by Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore and run by children with autism and seniors.

Konner: From the moment we opened the doors, it was like seeing into the heart of our own show. It was people of all ages and abilities coming together through food.

Thormahlen: I can only say, it was magical. It was this amazing mix of love and connection. Then you introduce these puppets, who in a very heartwarming way made us all connect, the kids and the nonnas. Massimo and Lara helped to educate our team that Tortellante isn’t a school. They make tortellini to sell, and it’s a very serious operation. Everybody is highly focused. It was fun to bring puppets into the mix, everybody was laughing and smiling. The puppets brought out a spark and surprised them.

How did the tortellini taste?

Thormahlen: One disappointment was that we wanted to prioritize our puppeteers! So, we made sure they were fed first, because we really wanted their reaction to be exciting and to call out the flavors and textures in a realistic way. I was often behind the camera, waiting for my portion, and I never made it because everyone was gobbling it up! We have to go back!

Konner: We definitely ate a little bit, but we were in a rush. But one thing about the show is that we want it to feel like a Chef’s Table and [Anthony] Bourdain, but those shows travel to a place for two weeks. We went into Tortellante for a few hours. We had to get in and out very quickly, and eat a couple bites while walking out as fast as we could.

Thormahlen: Shout-out to Lara! When we went to their Casa Maria Luigia, they fed us lunch on the patio.

In the next episode, the puppets travel to Venice to learn about Herbs & Spices. What was it like shooting in Venice?

Thormahlen: We scripted all of the elements as you see in the show, but I don't think any of us quite knew what we were in for. We had to shoot very quickly. We had a lot to load, and we had only one night in Venice. We were out by sunset. It was a fast and furious shoot, with a lot of gear and people, because as a puppet show, we don't travel light!

Konner: In our first episode, we see pizza and pasta—a lot of Italian influences—and by the time we get to the herbs and spices episode, we got so excited about going to Italy and focusing on foods that were not Italian, but are still part of Italy. This guy Hamed who started this restaurant in Venice is from Afghanistan and brings in all these refugees. Their foods are included on the menu, so you get this incredible mix of cultures. Because of Marco Polo and the spice trade, Venice was wildly important for bringing all of these flavors around the globe. We got excited about subverting the expectation and doing something a little crazy that I don’t think I had ever seen on a food show, to go to Italy and not see Italian food.

I admired the fact that you visited the ‘last spice shop in Italy’ owned by a man named Gino. Waffles & Mochi bring his spices back to Michelle Obama’s grocery store. Was that intentional, to have a small independent store supply a larger one?

Thormahlen: Intentional in the sense that we always wanted to elevate independent food-makers and food purveyors. That's been at the heart of our show from the beginning. Gino was one of my favorites because of his enthusiasm for his spices and for the way that he welcomed the puppets into his shop. At one point, Waffles says, “We’ll take all of them!” and Gino says, “OK, sure!” He was so happy to help them in a desperate moment of need.

Do you have any future episodes planned for Italy?

Thormahlen: Gosh, I’d like to go to Sicily. I’ve been to Northern Italy and the coastal region, but I have not made it down south. I know Jeremy and I have an interest in exploring seafood, because sustainability is a conversation, especially among the younger generations. I always think of that Bourdain episode where he catches an octopus. I think that would be really exciting.

Konner: I want to go back to the Amalfi coast, and if there are puppets, cool! But they don't have to be there”

Jeremy, what would you like to eat on the Amalfi Coast?

Konner: I'd love to do an episode on real buffalo mozzarella.

Thormahlen: Mmmmm!