Phagomania: You’d Batter Believe It

In this month's dispatch from the darkened backstreets of the foodie district of the internet, we bring you Dr. Dan the Pancake Man. A renaissance man who could not be held down to just flipping pancakes at his diner workplace, Dan became a local sensation when he started drawing with pancake batter. An appearance on Reddit sparked viral fame and then quicker than you can say 'Maple syrup with bacon? Whaa-?' Dan found himself on US TV behemoth The Today Show.

“I guess that's how virality works?” reflects Dan. “Sometimes you just wake up famous.” Dan’s creations grew in notoriety when he became a cultural reference pancake factory, banging out any request that came his way. Video games? Check. Film stars? Check. Your favourite team’s logo? Check. A partysaurus Rex riding a skateboard smoking a bong? Check!

As you can see from this page, and this is only the top of a mightily high stack, there is nothing Dan won’t take on. “It also helps with tips,” he professes, “giving out goofy smiley face pancake surprises, so there was plenty of motivation to start getting good at this stuff.” With all the success, Dan has branched out on his own, bringing mad pancake skills to private events and parties and hopes to fund a 'Dancake Van' to really take things to the next level. In between all things pancake, he is working on a graphic novel, and on his band that reminded us of early Mr. Bungle (in the context, it makes perfect sense).

As is our wont, we mused over the impact of the drawing on the eating, keen to see how Dan philosophised over the impact of his work. So does the Doctor think the way that food looks changes how we enjoy it and feel about it? “Oh, absolutely! I mean, everything about taste and preference is in your head; it's all psychological phenomena, it's all arbitrary emotional connections to what foods you're used to, how they make you feel, what you remember about them. And pancakes seem to be just this really cherished foodstuff, like something so many people tie with fond memories.

"So to have a food that there's already all this cultural information loaded into, and then to have some lanky, goofy guy like me make it look like one of your favorite cartoon characters, or actors, or a caricature of your own damn face... it's like the chemical formula for an awesome, memorable experience. And then it tastes great to boot!”

Not that some of his customers are too worried. "They wanna freeze dry them and hang them on the kitchen wall," says Dan. "That's actually a pretty wild idea, and probably something we'll look into down the road.”
So now that we’ve whet your appetite for construction of pancakes, we couldn’t let Dan away without giving us a few tips.

Once you get past the fear of doing a bad job, Dan has a simple credo: “I cook with my griddle at 400 degrees, I don't use any oil or butter, my batter is at a relatively normal consistency (not too thick, not too fluid) and I use condiment bottles as a sort of pancake pen so I can get fine details in the image.”

So keep it simple, reference things people find entertaining, and tie your art to a much-loved institution. That's how you become a viral sensation, people, take note – with your giant condiment pens.