Chefs Preeti Mistry and Bricia Lopez share their early kitchen memories, some favorite recipes, and the wonders of Michelle Obama’s new children’s series, Waffles + Mochi.
The former first lady Michelle Obama no longer tends the White House Kitchen Garden she planted on the South Lawn, but with the new children’s series Waffles + Mochi she’s once again putting her green thumb to good use. “In many ways, Waffles + Mochi is an extension of my work to support children’s health as first lady,” she says. “We know that everybody loves good food and a good story.”
The series is produced by the Obamas’ company, Higher Ground Productions, and follows the puppets Waffles (“My dad is a frozen waffle. My mom is a yeti.”) and Mochi (a delightful pink dessert) as they take off on a culinary adventure. Their journey lands them jobs at a spectacular supermarket where everyone is welcome and the store owner is none other than Mrs. Obama, whom you can find working on the rooftop garden. From here, the duo travels around the globe, learning from renowned chefs and developing their palates.
“The thing that really struck me about the series is how international it is,” says chef Preeti Mistry, who makes the flavor-packed Indian street snack pani puri with Waffles and Mochi in the episode “Herbs & Spices.” “It’s a wonderful thing for kids to see so many different types of people, races, genders, and nationalities. I feel like there’s something for everyone to learn.”
Chefs Preeti Mistry and Bricia Lopez with Waffles and Mochi
Chef Bricia Lopez agrees, adding, “One thing I love about the show is that kids are able to learn about ingredients that exist in other parts of the world.” Lopez herself teaches Waffles and Mochi about one of her family’s favorite dishes, mole coloradito, in the episode “Salt.” “It’s a wonderful way to empower kids,” she says. “The series allows them to get closer to food, and therefore get a little more curious about the kitchen and recipes.”
That sense of exploration extends throughout Waffles + Mochi, inspiring viewers to pick up new recipes, learn about other cultures, and find ways to get kids excited about being in the kitchen and parents excited about cooking with them. Behind the scenes, the Partnership for a Healthier America is getting involved to help families to eat healthier and gain access to fresh ingredients.
In that spirit, Queue asked chefs Mistry and Lopez to share some of their earliest experiences in the kitchen, plus some kid-friendly recipes that everyone can help make. Here’s to good food and good stories!
My earliest memories of the kitchen are of eating, not of cooking. My mom was, and is, a great cook. She really prided herself on making everything from scratch. For some of my youngest birthdays, she would make these little cupcakes with dried fruit in the middle. On my fifth birthday she made a cake in the shape of a five. I was like, This is the best birthday. My mom made a cake in the shape of a five. I was super impressed with her engineering.
We didn’t have a lot of money, so we didn’t go out to eat very often. I had this reputation in my family: They would be like, “Oh, Preeti always wants outside food.” I’m like, O.K., I get that we drink chai and we have Indian food every night, but what about all these other things I see on TV or hear about? What do other kids eat? What’s at that restaurant?
I remember one of my uncles took me to a seafood restaurant for the first time and Wow! Just the smells! It was one of those tacky places in St. Petersburg, Florida, with the big sailor ropes everywhere. We had grouper. I was just genuinely curious about all of these other foods, and I wanted to try different things.
Chef Preeti Mistry
Photo by Alanna Hale
My mother learned to cook from my father’s mother. We’d eat very healthy traditional Gujarati food at least five or six nights a week. It was vegetables and lentils and rice and whole wheat flour, but it was quite a feast. Of course there were indulgences, like samosas and bajias and gulab jamun and all the deep-fried, yummy stuff, but those were for special occasions. We didn’t get a lot of sugary cereals. Candy wasn’t something that was just hanging out. The naughtiest thing we could find was like, I think there might be some gum in Mom’s purse. Oh, no gum, but there’s a Tic Tac.
I remember joking with my parents when I was a kid, saying, “When I go to college, the first thing I’m going to do is buy Lucky Charms.” They just looked like candy and milk, and would never be allowed in my parents’ house. I actually had a really bad stomachache in the first four or five months of college because I would literally have chocolate-covered espresso beans and Mountain Dew for breakfast.
When I was 19, my girlfriend and I moved to San Francisco and I started missing all the home-cooked food. When you grow up eating food that’s made from scratch, from real ingredients, every day for years and years and years, you’re like, Wait, I can’t just eat pizza and burritos... So that’s when I started cooking!
My Mom’s Tomato Soup
By Preeti Mistry
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 15 Minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 whole clove
½ tsp whole cumin seeds
4 fresh curry leaves
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 12-oz can ground tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 tsp salt
1 twist fresh ground pepper (optional)
¼ c fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add whole spices, curry leaves, and ginger.
Step 2: Sauté spices and herbs lightly for about 3–5 minutes. Pour on can of tomato and 1/2 can of water.
Step 3: Turn up heat to medium high and add salt. Let soup simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste, and add more salt if necessary.
Step 4: Serve with fresh ground pepper and cilantro garnish.
One of my earliest memories of the kitchen is the memory of coming home from school. When I would get home, my mom would be setting the table for us. I grew up in Oaxaca until I was 10. Every day there was a different agua fresca, and for dinner there was a home-cooked meal. We’d have some flautas and tortillas, and there were always extra jalapeños, lime, and salt in the middle. We would have this very rich meal together.
Every Sunday we would go visit my grandma. She lived in a village that was 45 minutes from where we lived in the city. On the way to her house, we would stop by a town called Tlacolula, where there’s still a huge market. We would buy these refried beans. We would get salsa in a little plastic bag. We would get meat. There’s a long corridor where you buy your meat, and the middle of the corridor is full of community grills. We would grill, then we would go to my grandma’s house.
Chef Bricia Lopez at Guelaguetza in Los Angeles
Photo by Quentin Bacon
I remember the smell of my grandma’s hair. She always had two braids wrapped around in a ribbon, and they always smelled like smoked chilis. My grandma was a very stern woman. The way that she got to show love for her family was by doing these acts of service like cooking. The gift she gave me is the gift of knowing what good food is. She gave me this higher level of appreciation for flavors. When you’re young, you don’t understand that that’s a love language, but now that I’m older I can rationalize it.
For my restaurant’s menu, I wanted kids of immigrants to come and taste the flavors of their families — but I never cooked like that at home when I was single. When I had my son, I started thinking about what kinds of flavors I wanted him to grow up with, and I started to have this reconnection with my food. I started really understanding how precious and how rich our culture truly is, how powerful women are for keeping these traditions alive, and the responsibility we have to our families.
The kitchen is a great place to practice letting yourself be vulnerable as a mother. Your kids will get burned, they will fall, they will make a mess, and you have to be O.K. with that. I want my son to be able to feel comfortable, to help me, and to be involved. I want him to feel safe and secure, and, selfishly, to make me lunch one day so I don’t have to!
Enfrijoladas (Black Bean Enchiladas)
By Bricia Lopez
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 chile de arból, stems removed, dry-toasted in a pan
2 avocado leaves
3 c warm black bean broth
2 c cooked black beans, drained but with liquid reserved
8 corn tortillas
½ c queso fresco, crumbled
½ c vegetable oil
Salt to taste
For garnish:
Queso fresco
Thinly sliced white onion
Minced parsley
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: In a blender, add the toasted chile de arból, avocado leaves, beans, and warm black bean broth. Blend until super smooth.
Step 2: In a medium pot, heat 1 tbs vegetable oil. Once oil is hot, add bean mixture and stir. Cook until the bean paste starts to boil. Taste and adjust salt as necessary. The texture should be like heavy cream. Set aside.
Step 3: In a large skillet, heat the rest of the oil on medium heat until hot. With metal tongs, dip each tortilla in oil one by one to lightly fry them until they are soft and pliable (be careful not to leave them in there for too long or they will get crispy). Turn each one twice so that both sides get evenly fried. On a paper-towel-lined plate, stack the fried tortillas.
Step 4: When you are ready to serve, dip each tortilla in hot bean paste for about one minute, until the tortilla is fully covered with beans.
Step 5: Fold the tortillas twice individually on a plate like a ribbon and place next to each other (3–5 tortillas per person).
Step 6: Serve with raw onion, parsley, and queso fresco garnish.
