A lot of people picked up baking or cooking during the pandemic. For some it was their first foray into the art and other reignited a dormant passion. CB caught the bug. Oya’s always had it. When Sasha and Malia Obama came home due to quarantine, they, too, found solace from the lockdown blues in the kitchen. So much so that their mom, Michelle Obama, had to shut them down. Not that she didn’t appreciate the ladies helping out, but because they were too darn good at it. In order to protect her arteries, Michelle put a lock on the pantry and told her daughters the kitchen was closed.
While Michelle Obama’s new Netflix cooking show might inspire legions of young people to don an apron, the former First Lady jokes to PEOPLE that there are two family members she’d prefer stayed out of the kitchen: her daughters, Sasha and Malia.
The problem isn’t that her college-aged daughters have no talent at cooking — in fact, the problem is quite the opposite.
“They were baking way too much at the beginning of quarantine, too many delicious pies. They were good at it! Good pie crust, good fillings,” says the star of Waffles + Mochi, which premieres on Netflix on March 16.
Rather than get to work in the kitchen during the day, Sasha, 19, and Malia, 22, would cook late into the night, making the family’s intake of sweets particularly problematic.
“My kids were midnight bakers. So at 1 in the morning, you’d smell cinnamon buns baking,” she says in this week’s cover story. “I had to tell them to stop because we can’t have all those sweets.”
Despite her husband former President Barack Obama’s well-documented love of pie, he did not succumb to their girls’ baking, says Mrs. Obama. “He’s just ridiculously disciplined. We hate him,” she laughs.
I am so jealous that Sasha and Malia can make a good pie crust. I gave up trying years ago. Appetite-wise, pies are not a problem for me, though. I can take or leave a pie. So I’m fine with those in the house. Same with cinnamon buns – I can walk by them. But breads, cakes, croissants and scones are a problem so yes, I had to put the kibosh on quarantine baking too. And if those scents were wafting into my room at 1 AM? Fuggedaboutit. That’s all I’d think about until I tore into whatever goodness was coming out of the oven. So I’d do exactly what Michelle did and kick everyone out of the kitchen. I hear her on Barack’s discipline, too. My dad’s like that. He can turn down any food when he’s dieting. Makes me want to throw my portion at him.
I misunderstood what Michelle’s show, Waffles + Mochi, was about. I knew it was healthy eating and that Michelle would have several celebrity guests, but I did not know it was an actual cooking show. Which, now that I’ve re-watched the trailer, I see was my mistake. The show starts streaming next Tuesday, the 16th, on Netflix. I appreciate Michelle presenting an intelligent food show to kids. Children are much more interested in cooking than just frosting cookies and dyeing eggs. If you give them the tools they need to invest in their own nutrition, it will really pay off for them (and you) when they become adolescents. I know I’m a broken record about this, but I cannot commend Michelle enough for continuing the work she began as the First Lady. She made a promise to look out for us and she’s keeping it even though she left office. Her work ethic and dedication is an example for all of us. Sasha and Malia are very lucky to have her as a role model, even if she is shooing them out of her kitchen. Oh, and both Michelle and Barack got their COVID-19 vaccines!
Photo credit: Miller Mobley/People, Instagram and Adam Rose/Netflix
Awwww that trailer looks darn cute. I still remember making my first dinner for everyone, being a super proud kid. I started to learn cooking really young, and I still love it. During the lockdown I really got back to it. Kind of a way to have a date night with hubby, cooking together. I’m so going to watch this.
I caught the baking bug bad too. I’m making cakes, cupcakes, buns, bread, focaccia and pizza at all hours. My mother has had to beg me to stop too. I love Michelle, she is such a wonderful person and her family is amazing.
My MIL has perfected her baking skills this last year ( and she was already amazing ) she drops off fruit crumbs, breads, cookies and cakes routinely, so I’ve given daily to neighbors and I’m now a hero!
I love the Obama family. When the lockdown began, I binged watched ten seasons of the Great British Baking Show and really improved my baking skills. I had to cut way back on it after all my clothes got tighter and tighter!
I just discovered the GBBS and am into my second season! I am trying to ration myself to two episodes a day.
I’m burned out on cooking and baking at the moment — I have a college kiddo studying from home and he consumes massive amount of food — but I am starting to find myself thinking about things I might bake. I love everyone’s accents, too, so delightful. I really want to check out Michelle’s show and wish something like that had been around when my boys were little.
They always made cookies with me at the holidays but rarely wanted to cook otherwise. I wish I had encouraged them to cook with me more when they were little. Both are in college now and one has picked up cooking quite easily but the one who is home has a pretty limited repertoire and I imagine him eating nothing but pancakes and raw vegetables when he’s back on campus in his own apartment in the fall!
I often say my son (36) learned how to cook in self-defense. I am so not great (easily distracted, my sense of timing is off, I may set numerous timers and miss all of them cause I’ve wandered into the garden or am brushing the dogs or lord only knows). The one dish I do relatively well comes out different every time and I have no idea why.
I am in awe of my sister, who can make a peanut butter sandwich seem like high end wizardry, never mind when she really does start putting on the ritz.
People that can make good pies indeed have talent. The crust is so hard to make, I can never get a dough without adding more water and then it gets sticky. However, I can’t have a bunch of carbs and sugar around, I don’t understand how it’s so easy for some people! But I guess it’s in my genes–when I was a kid, my mom made me keep any treats that were mine in my room so she wouldn’t eat them. My sister and I are confident that our parents’ behavior towards food has made us have really bad behavior; I have no idea how to eat just a little bit, it’s all or nothing
There’s a Cooks Illustrated pie crust recipe where you use vodka instead of water – it makes it so much easier to deal with! The vodka cooks out and you can’t taste it. I have made really great crusts with that recipe!! 🙂
I’ve been meaning to make their vodka pie crust. My grandmother left me with her pie crust recipe which uses half lard/half crisco as the fats. It’s a damn good crust, but learning the recipe meant I was then in charge of pies for family gatherings.
I once was tasked with the pumpkin pie and it was 1am after a long day of work and I had to get up early to finish the pie and the dough was not coming together properly so I slammed the mass down on the counter in a fit of exhausted rage, about to cry and after that it magically came together. Don’t know the science behind that move, but it’s always an option.
I love our former first family. They look great and the girls have thrived in an environment that is certainly not easy to do so in even for adults.
But, I did notice Harry and Meghan have a tiny corner of People front page. I wonder why that is? The interview that shocked the world, but they barely bring it to the front and center?
That photo of the four ladies is stunning. I love their family and the idea of the girls baking late at night is so cute to me. When my two college boys were home during lockdown they didn’t really hang out much except for the occasional Xbox game. It made me sad remembering how close they were when they were little. Cooking and baking is such a great bonding activity.
I love and appreciate her so much! I love to bake, but have been avoiding it as we need to drop a few…or a lot of pounds. I did a cleanse starting in Feb with no grains, dairy or sugar and I feel so good that I don’t want to start adding back in! We’ll see, but I feel like it will be more for occasional treats instead of daily. My biggest hurdle was cheese. I watched some baking shows though. I love GBBS!
King Arthur Baking has great tutorials on baking. I took a class at their Norwich, Vermont flagship store on quiches and improved my pie crust. Classes are also online.
I’m not affiliated, I’m just obsessed.
KA is the best. Their recipes are well tested, the tutorials helpful and their online response to bakers’ questions is fantastic. There is little need to look elsewhere for baking recipes (although other websites are always tempting me).
I didn’t think it was possible for me to love this family more than I already did.
No baking for me! ( Even though cookies are my obsession) I stopped cooking once my kids were grown. My pandemic obsession became those miniature dollhouse kits.
I have been intrigued by those since I was a little girl. Have never done any….yet.
I used to bake quite a bit, but I gave it up years ago. I could never go back to it. I don’t have the metabolism I used to.
I didn’t know about her new show! I will definitely watch this! I love cooking shows and especially those revolving around healthy eating.
I’m an excellent cook, I think mostly because my family originates from a part of Italy (the Lombardy Alps, so far north that other Italian-Americans accuse us of being Swiss) whose cuisine is nowhere to be found in America, so I always wanted to keep it alive. Then a couple of my dad’s friends’ wives taught me their recipes when their own kids/grandkids weren’t interested, so I can do Eastern European Jewish and soul food, too. But even as a kid, I never really had a sweet tooth, so I never bothered much with desserts. I decided to make that my quarantine challenge. The boss battle was my fiance’s grandma’s chocolate chess pie, which he could never get right despite being a very good baker himself. I nailed it on my first try and felt like a domestic goddess. But now he wants me to make it all the damn time and it’s becoming a problem, because my dad, stepmom, and I are cheese plate-for-dessert people, so my fiance eats most of it himself, and I’m afraid that by the time we finally get to have our wedding, he’ll have to roll down the aisle on one of those Rascal scooters.
I relate to living with teens/young adults who have a very different sleep/wake schedule than I do, though I suspect her home is a little larger than mine 😂
I baked and cooked all through quarantine since there was nothing else to do. Then I kinda got sick of it. Well, my vaccinated husband and his vaccinated friends (they’re all
Marines) are brewing beer in the driveway this weekend and I get to bake for them! I’m making sausage rolls and Victoria sandwiches, one with homemade raspberry jam and one with custard. I’m so excited to bake for people. They still can’t come in my house though.
An ancient aunt of mine made the best ever pastry. She used 4 oz butter and about 1/4 cup water to 8oz flour. I’m Irish so don’t ask me the cup measurements. Basically as little water as it takes to bind it all together. Sling in fridge to cool and roll out between parchment paper. Ta da.
I also make the NYT no knead bread which is idiot proof.
I’m a good cook but terrible baker however, these two recipes have earned me the reputation as a master baker with my step kids. Hope they don’t read this 😂
I hadn’t even heard Michelle was doing a Netflix show, that looks so charming! My son is probably a little too young for it (he just turned 2) but I might watch it myself…?