Koen Nebel has dinosaurs for breakfast one week, then Spider-Man the next.
That’s what happens when you leave Dad in charge of breakfast.
His father, Brek Nebel, is a pancake artist.
From Bisquick batter comes colorful characters that leap off the griddle and onto the plate.
Nebel has to get started early. It takes him about an hour to make a pancake.
“He is insanely patient,” Nebel said of 4-year-old Koen.
The fancy flapjacks began last year as a way to put some fun in the morning routine. Nebel, a second-shift Boeing worker, pulls breakfast duty while his wife, Rebecca, works days.
“We started out just using cookie cutters as molds: planes, buses and things like that,” Nebel said. “It evolved. I added some color to it. I started drawing the outlines using a chopstick.”
Koen helps stir the batter, which his dad paints onto the griddle inside the lines.
“It’s good bonding time for us,” Nebel said. “He pulls a stool up next to the counter. He lets me be meticulous.”
Nebel makes the special pancakes one day a week. Everything from sharks and Ninja Turtles to the Yellow Submarine and Space Needle.
“Koen usually picks what we do, unless I get an idea stuck in my head that I want to try. The Star Wars ones, those are me trying to push an agenda on him,” Nebel said.
It worked. Koen dressed as Darth Vader to go with that pancake. It’s among the many shots Nebel documented on social media, including YouTube videos showing the making of the hotcake.
His edible art went viral last year when a friend posted it on Reddit. Nebel’s pancakes were featured on “The Chew” and “The Meredith Vieira Show.”
An online commenter wrote: “I couldn’t even fill in a coloring book that well.”
The Huffington Post termed him a “frying pan genius.”
Nebel said it takes practice, though. It helps that he comes from an artistic family and is good at drawing. Most of his art is on paper, not pancakes.
Navy service brought him from Oregon to Everett, where he met Rebecca. “I worked on radars and communication equipment and micro-miniatures repair,” he said.
Now he works on inflight entertainment systems for a vendor contractor at Boeing. “I haven’t taken the pancakes to work,” he said. “I have a few pictures of them on my desk, with my son.”
What’s Koen’s favorite?
“Bears,” the boy said.
Koen uses the leftover batter to make his own. He’s good with circles for Mickey Mouse ears.
He talks pancakes with his preschool teacher. She understands when he says he ate a rhinoceros for breakfast.
The reaction is different at a restaurant. “He asks for Space Needle pancakes,” Nebel said.
Nebel compares notes and shares tips online with other pancake artists.
“It’s a niche group,” he said. “There’s some amazing stuff out there.”
Is it OK that his wacky pancakes get more attention than his fine art drawings?
“I love my art,” he said, “but I never thought it would give me any recognition.”
Add pizazz to your breakfast
Nebel will show you how in a Marysville Parks and Recreation workshop from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 17 at Jennings Park Rotary Ranch at 6915 Armar Road. Bring an electric skillet, bowl, spoon, spatula and picture of a character to create. Cost is $25. Advance registration required. Call the main parks office at 360-363-8400. Find Nebel on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr: @PancakeBREKfast.
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