Matt Haines, Chef Sara Salgado: King Cakes and Mardi Gras Season

Author and journalist, Matt Haines explains how King Cake is more than just a dessert; it’s a cultural celebration that blends history, tradition, and culinary artistry, especially during Mardi Gras. The episode explores the origins, varieties, and the community rituals surrounding King Cake, highlighting its significance in New Orleans’ seasonal festivities. Plus, chef Sara Salgado bakes up fresh King Cake right in studio! 

• Overview of Mardi Gras and King Cake season 
• Historical origins linking King Cake to ancient Roman celebrations 
• The evolution of King Cake in New Orleans culture 
• Variants and unique flavors that reflect local creativity 
• Social rituals and etiquette surrounding King Cake consumption 
• Importance of King Cakes in supporting local bakeries and economies 
• Advice for experiencing King Cake for the first time 
• Insights from guests about the future of King Cake traditions

Introducing the SupraCut System - the automated solution that enhances safety, quality, and efficiency, cutting up to 120 perfect citrus wedges per minute, 6 times faster than manual. Patented tech delivers uniform slices, reducing waste and eliminating plastic, while the hygienic, contactless design lowers contamination and injuries, integrating seamlessly to transform your operations and improve profitability - get started at SupraCut.com and ask about risk-free trials.

Elevate your dining experience with RAK Porcelain USA! As the exclusive tableware brand for the Walk-In Talk Podcast, RAK combines exceptional craftsmanship with innovative design. Whether you’re a chef, a restaurant owner, or a food enthusiast, RAK’s high-quality porcelain products will enhance every meal. Discover the artistry of food presentation and make every dining occasion special. Visit rakporcelain.com today and see how RAK can transform your table

The following brands and companies help us continue supporting the food industry - have a look below! 

Chapters

• 0:51 Exploring King Cake Tradition and Varieties
• 10:08 Evolution of King Cake Tradition
• 15:45 King Cake Tradition in New Orleans
• 26:54 King Cake Smuggling and Varieties
• 32:07 King Cake Tradition in New Orleans
• 41:02 Excitement Over King Cake Arrival

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

hello food fam. This is the walk and talk podcast where you'll find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl fiedini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're recording on site at ibis images studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. Here's a humble request to follow us on Instagram at walkandtalkshow, please and thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Are you tired of manual fruit cutting? Try Supercut System, an automated solution that cuts 120 citrus wedges per minute. With consistent slices and a hygienic design, it enhances safely and efficiently. Improve your operations at supercutcom and ask about risk-free trials. Welcome to our. You know I'm talking to you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Folks, welcome to our special Mardi Gras edition of the show. It is that time of the year. I mean it's like all New Orleans all day the Super Bowl, mardi Gras. I mean it's like all New Orleans all day, the Super Bowl, mardi Gras. Ooh, wow.

Speaker 1: 1:49

Today we dive into the rich traditions and flavors of the iconic King Cake. We're thrilled to be joined by Matt Haynes, a New Orleans-based writer and author of the Big Book of King Cake. He's got some other stuff cooking too he's going to talk about. Matt will be sharing his insider expertise on the history, cultural significance and mouth-watering varieties of this carnival staple. We've got chef Sarah Salgado in-house. Sarah is a classically trained chef with deep roots in the New Orleans culinary scene and she'll be walking us through the process of making an authentic king cake from scratch, which she did here in the studio. I got to eat it, I had it, john shot it. You know photography as usual, it's stinking beautiful. Yeah, that's what I said, and this is exciting for me because I've never had king cake before. And here I am today with king cake as far as the eye can see, and I guess I picked the wrong week to stop eating cake. Matt, sarah, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 2:56

It's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3: 2:59

Yeah, thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Well, matt, welcome back. You were here last year and it was a really great episode. I don't know, did I get my book? I didn't see it. Is that book?

Speaker 4: 3:08

over there.

Speaker 1: 3:09

No, oh, okay, it's cool man. What's the? What's your new book you got coming out?

Speaker 3: 3:14

Yeah, so uh, first book I wrote was the big book of King cake, and then after that, I wrote a children's book called the little book of King cake, and now I'm working on, which should be out in early November of this year.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Look man, I ain't gonna lie. Can I be down? Can I hang? Like that sounds amazing. You're talking my language right now.

Speaker 3: 3:33

That's what a lot of people have said, and I've sold at this point now, between the two King Cake books, we've sold over 22,000 copies. But a lot of people are saying you know, I bought the King Cake book because it's beautiful, but I'm really interested in po'boys and so yeah, they're. Obviously they are not as naturally pretty to shoot as a king cake is, but the photos are awesome. I'm eating all of them. I've eaten hundreds of po'boys.

Speaker 1: 3:55

My man, I don't know if I don't know if I agree with you. I mean, yeah, the king cake, they're colorful, it's got. I think I would probably. I'm a savory guy man, I don't know. I think that would probably fit my optics a little, even better than the king cake.

Speaker 3: 4:09

They are mouthwatering photos, for sure. They're not like I wouldn't call them pretty, but they are a very impressive looking. I can't, whenever we do a photo like we do this thing where we look through old photos and we set layouts as we're creating the book, and I can't do it on an empty stomach. I have to make sure I eat a big meal before that or I'm making all sorts of weird decisions.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Amen, I. You know that's how I feel around here. You know, every week we have chefs that run through the that come to the studio and naturally I partake in the grub in the food. Typically we break bread over here after, after the cooking is done. You know, we film while we cook and then, once the dish is done, john gets it, he shoots it and then we jump on the podcast. One of these days I would love to have you in studio.

Speaker 3: 4:56

Yeah, I would love to be there.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Let's talk about the history and cultural significance of King Cakes in New Orleans. Why are they such a big? I mean, they're delicious, that's why. But why are they such a big deal?

Speaker 3: 5:15

Yeah, I think that I mean now for anybody who has not been to New Orleans during carnival season. And carnival season goes from January 6th. That's the 12th night of Christmas. It's the day that Christians believe the three kings found baby Jesus and presented their three gifts, and so that's the start of King Cake season. And, by the way, king cake is named after those three kings, and then we eat king cake all the way until Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

Speaker 3: 5:33

So this year that's January 6th all the way to March 5th, and this is a dessert that truly can be found everywhere. I do a lot of kids book readings with the little book of king cake, and schools are having king cake at least every Friday in the classroom, many of them more often than every Friday. If you go into an office break room at most offices in New Orleans, you're going to find multiple king cakes there, and then whoever finds the little plastic baby inside that cake is responsible for bringing their king cake the next week. And then, of course, at the parade route, you're finding king cakes everywhere. Right now, every bakery has their own, either a traditional version or their own unique twist on it.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Have you noticed whether or not the populace leans towards the traditional or they're up for something new?

Speaker 3: 6:20

I feel like I'm pretty good at taking in information or things that I'm watching and making sense out of it, but not in this case. So I am a New Yorker, originally been in New Orleans for 16 years, and I just tend to love decadent, wild things. And so I'm looking at a traditional king cake, which oftentimes has no filling inside it at all, some icing on top, three color the purple, green and gold sugar and I'm looking at that versus I'm looking at a king cake that might have cream cheese and strawberry or chocolate or peanut butter all these amazing versions that sound so exciting. And then I bring maybe five of them into a school and I'm like, oh, they're definitely going to eat. These kids who love sugar and sweets are definitely going to eat chocolate, peanut butter, king cakes first. But they don't. Everybody always goes by far and wide. They go to the traditional one first. Preschoolers, kindergartners, 50 year olds, they all go traditional first and I don't really understand what's happening, but I guess it's just nostalgia and tradition is my guess.

Speaker 1: 7:24

My pupils are dilated right now. Do know what I mean. Like we're talking about all these like so I'm with you. By the way, matt, I would totally go cream cheese, I would go filling, because I'm a fat ass and and that's what I want in my life. Okay, like when chef sarah was doing the king cake here, she had finished and there was like, um, there was some flat pieces of sugary cinnamon flakes like, and chips or whatever, and I'm and I'm just eyeballing these things and you know, naturally I had to stop whatever I was doing.

Speaker 1: 7:55

I was filming for crying out loud, I had to stop and and and take the uh, the break there and and and have that.

Speaker 3: 8:01

I had to have it in my life right then and there of course, yeah, I sometimes I'll cut into a king cake and then, well, I did it. So on January, usually, when I'm eating king cake now it's at like an event. I've got a king cake book event almost every night and fortunately at these events people are bringing a whole lot of king cakes. So I'm not eating a whole cake by myself, but on January 6th, the start of the season, I'm a journalist and so sometimes people will send over a king cake and that is awesome. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 8:29

And my girlfriend, she is trying not to eat king cake this season for caloric reasons that I don't agree with, but that's her decision. And so I was stuck with this Brennan's banana Foster's king cake, this bananas Foster cream cheese mixture inside, and the first thing I take a slice and I eat it and then I start to evaluate okay, which side because these things are oftentimes braided, so like some areas of the cake have more filling than other, and I will try to determine which direction is going to have more filling than the other way and I'll start moving in that direction. Yeah, I love decadent things as well.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Man, as it turns out, you and me are like peas and carrots. Because you're taking the same approach I would take, Cause I do that with almost every meal. You know what I mean? I'm picking the. If it's a chicken cutlet, all right, I'm going to have to get the perfect chicken cutlet, the slice of pea, whatever it is, I am looking for the first. That first piece, that first thing I'm going to get is going to be the best ever.

Speaker 3: 9:24

Maybe we're selfish and it doesn't make me a good person, but like it's like we're both going to get the same number of slices, but my slices if I have something to do with it are going to be just a little bit. There'll be a little bit more on those slices.

Speaker 1: 9:37

You're saying all the right stuff. I got to tell you again pupils absolutely dilated. Right now I am ready to continue on with the king cakes. There's a lot of tradition behind it. I don't think it's just everybody going after sugary treats. Can you get into a little bit more about where it comes from?

Speaker 3: 9:52

Yeah, definitely. I love talking about this stuff, and it's something that I think even a lot of New Orleanians we don't quite realize is that this is a tradition that goes back 4,000 years to ancient Rome, and so they had something called the Saturnalia Festival. This is again long before Mardi Gras ever existed, and so the Saturnalia Festival was basically held right around the winter solstice, which is December 21st, and what they were celebrating is what they believed to be that the sun, the god of the sun, was triumphing over these winter spirits. That's what those kind of pagan Romans believed, and they were, and what they were seeing is that the months leading up to December 21st, every single day, the sun's apex in the sky would be a little lower than the day before, and the nights would be getting longer and the days would be getting shorter, and so they perceived that as that the sun was dying. And then, on December 21st, the day was celebrating, because every single day after that, the sun was rising higher in the sky, the days were longer, the nights were shorter, and so it felt like the sun was triumphing over its enemies, and so it also was a great time to have a feast, because at around December 21st, your fall, harvest all of those meats that know, meats that you were at in storage and your vegetables that you had harvested. A lot of those were spoiling despite your best efforts. They were starting to spoil, so you better eat them now before you lose them. And then it's quite a few months until springtime. Still, when you're going to get, you know, the earth is going to be reproducing food again, and so the idea was put on a whole lot of pounds now before this time period of birth and struggle.

Speaker 3: 11:32

And so during that Saturnalia festival they would eat too much, depend on those pounds, they would drink too much, they would take two weeks off of work, they would wear colorful costumes, they would sing and parade in the streets and this sounds a whole lot like our Mardi Gras does today. It's a lot of the same traditions. And in the middle of that feast they would have a cake of their own and it looks a little bit, if people are familiar with it, the Le Deois, which is like a French style of king cake. It literally translates to cake of kings. The Romans would have something like that, which was circular, not ring-shaped like we know king cake today, and it would be golden like the sun and circular like the sun, and inside the middle of that cake there would be not a little plastic baby like we do, but a fava bean.

Speaker 3: 12:18

And whoever got the slice with the fava bean inside is crowned king or queen of the Saturnalia, and whereas in New Orleans you're crowned king or queen of your school classroom, for example, and then you're expected to bring the next king cake the following week. Not like that in Rome. Rather than bringing the next cake, you're actually sacrificed to the gods. So it was a much higher stakes, you know thing to find that fava bean inside the cake.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So where did the mashup come from between Roman history and Jesus Christ? How did that? Where did that come in?

Speaker 3: 12:47

Yeah, so those, the Roman Republic, spread out and became the Roman Empire, from Bulgaria in the east to the British Isles in the west, and when the Roman Empire collapsed, the next kind of big power to occupy all that space was Christianity, and the Christians wanted to convert those pagans to their religion, and so, rather than replacing all of the traditions that had existed in their beliefs, they merged them together, and so Saturnalia was December 21st, and so Christians weren't quite sure exactly when Jesus was born. They said, well, why don't we just do it around the same time of year? And so, rather than Christmas being one day kind of like, we think about it, now it was the 12 days of Christmas. So rather than Christmas being one day kind of like we think about it, now it was the 12 days of Christmas, and on that 12th night of Christmas is the day that the Christians believe that the three kings found Jesus. And so they made that Saturnalia cake. They decided to honor the three kings and they called it a three kings cake, and even in 1700s in New Orleans and early 1800s, when you look at newspaper articles, sometimes it was called a three king's cake still, and then eventually that became a king's cake and then a king cake, and so many different countries around Europe today and many of the places that was touched by Europe.

Speaker 3: 14:00

So Mexico has a tradition as well, and so do we. Obviously they have their own distinct version of king cake. Ours comes from southern France. It looks a lot like that southern French version of king cake, called a cateau de lois cake of kings, and in early New Orleans time, 1700s and 1800s, creole New Orleanians so those are New Orleanians with European descent on January 6th would have their king cake and there would be maybe a pecan hidden inside, and whoever found a pecan crowned king or queen Twelfth Night. So again, it's just a Christmas tradition, has nothing to do with Mardi Gras, and then they would be responsible for bringing the king cake one year from now.

Speaker 3: 14:40

But as non-Creole New Orleanians started to discover this tradition during the late 1800s thanks to carnival season, they said this is too fun. Why are we just doing this once a year? Let's do it, you know, if you get the bean or the pecan inside the cake, how about we host another party next week? And so then it became, and every Friday there's a king cake party tradition. And then that Christmas time tradition started to encroach into what was becoming carnival season, and it went all the way through carnival season to Mardi Gras day, and the reason it didn't go the next day was because that was Lent, and all of a sudden, this is a cake that we can't eat anymore, and so that's how it went from being a Christmastime tradition in Europe to all of a sudden a carnival Mardi Gras tradition here in you know, kind of along the Gulf Coast, and we're the only place in the world that it's a Mardi Gras tradition and then a Christmas tradition.

Speaker 1: 15:29

I think it's fascinating that you're a New Yorker and you transplanted yourself to New Orleans. Have you been embraced by the locals? Are you considered now a local? The fact that you have all of this knowledge and respect for the local traditions and whatnot, how are you embraced?

Speaker 3: 15:45

I love watching people's faces. When I started King Cakes I'll give like a. I could talk forever about King Cake history and so I've got a nice little, a restrained 25 minute King Cake history presentation. I'm doing one at the library tonight, for example, but I did one at like this you know French Quarter High Society function yesterday, and so always at the beginning I'll tell my kind of journey to King Cake function yesterday, and so always at the beginning I'll tell my journey to King Cake. It's a funny story and I love that.

Speaker 3: 16:12

I love watching people's faces when they find out that the person who's about to talk to them about King Cake is from New York. There are definitely some frowns and some scowls and I really lean into it and then I can usually win them over. I always say that, being a New Yorker, I took I never thought to make a book about pizza or bagels. You know, you kind of take those things for granted a little bit. And it was only like I think a lot of Louisianians they love King Cake but don't always think look deep into it the same way that I did. For me King Cake was like what in the world is this? So I wanted to explore it, and maybe that's not something that we always do when it's an item that is, you know, right there in front of us from birth. Basically.

Speaker 1: 16:50

So what you're saying is there's a collective whisper of New York City happening in the crowd.

Speaker 3: 16:57

Yeah, I can feel, I feel like I can hear it and then, uh, then I own it and then eventually I think people, people, by the end they're buying the book, so I don't think they're too upset with me by the end.

Speaker 2: 17:07

And it's a funny presentation.

Speaker 3: 17:09

I mean, new Orleans is a place that I can never say that I am from New Orleans. I think that would be stepping into a pothole. But I think that I chose New Orleans my family's back in New York. I chose to be in New Orleans because I love it so much and I love its unique traditions, and so to be able to learn about them and write about them is a lot of fun for me.

Speaker 1: 17:31

To give a deeper perspective of how big this whole King Cake operation is.

Speaker 3: 17:37

talk about the economics of it, of king cake in New Orleans yeah, I mean, there's no definitive number, though that would be a great project to do, truly. Not just every bakery, but many restaurants, many breakfast cafes, many chocolatiers, they all have their own. The Audubon Insectarium has a cricket king cake, so everybody tries to put their own spin on a king cake, based on what their story is or what their business is, and so I think when I created the book, so a couple of years ago, a number we found was something like 750,000 king cakes being consumed in New Orleans alone during carnival season, and I think it's impossible that number must be so much higher now, even just a few years later. There's so much growth every year, and I remember, when we were interviewing people for the book, a few things that stand out to me. One was a baker, la Boulangerie on Magazine Street Maggie Scales is a baker there and she said that selling king cakes during carnival season is so essential because that's the amount of, that's the profit, the revenue that's going to help your bakery get through a long summer in New Orleans.

Speaker 3: 18:54

New Orleans is a tough time. Not many people want to visit New Orleans when it's 100 degrees plus there, and so for bakeries to be able to survive that summer. Selling king cakes and having a great king cake season is really important for them, and another baker told me that they actually are only open during carnival season. This is K Wood and Randazzo's. Randazzo's is one of the big king cake families and they said they made a joke. They said you know, our goal is to sell enough king cakes during January and February so that the rest of the year we can just go fishing, which I appreciate. There's a lot of king cakes being sold this time of year and that is really important to the survival of bakeries the rest of the year.

Speaker 1: 20:13

If I'm not mistaken, our good friend Sean Pooch Rivera sent some king cake from Rendazzo's.

Speaker 2: 20:26

I think he was going to send it from there.

Speaker 1: 20:27

I'm not sure where they were coming from. I believe that's what he told me and I could be wrong. I'm still waiting for these cakes, but you know, at the end of the day it should be arriving today sometime randazzo's is pretty good is it?

Speaker 1: 20:38

well, so that leads me to my next question, and I have two people here, you know, with sarah and matt, that could probably answer this. And not to take away from anyone else, but like, if there was, if you were going to go to a traditional shop to get your king cake, well, who is it? And if you were going to a modern, more modern style king cake, who would that be?

Speaker 2: 20:59

I would say Randazzo's. I've had my fill of Randazzo's. Definitely, I actually know somebody that works at that bakery. Duong Phong is like the number one hot seller. I can't remember who was doing it, but like we were talking about the d'Aubage.

Speaker 3: 21:17

You know I got Gambino's. They are kind of famous for their d' their dobaj and kind of a traditional bakery I think.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Gambino's might have done the dobaj style, but I can't remember exactly. I never got to try that because every time you would go to get it you had to wait in line forever down the block.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Matt, what say you?

Speaker 3: 21:38

I think that for a traditional king cake, which so like, I'll do a lot of like events that are King Cake and wine and cheese pairing or King Cake and beer pairing, and we'll try to do five different King Cakes, and so I do want to include a traditional one in there. I try to mix it up. Randazzo is such a good one because there's like it's like King Cake Game of Thrones. Basically there's all these like different. It all started one father and his three brothers and generations and generations later there's lawsuits and divorces and people are saying they're stealing the recipe and bringing it to other bakeries. So that is fun from a story perspective.

Speaker 3: 22:16

I think that Gambino's, specifically the filled Gambino's king cakes are really delicious, and then Kaluta's, which is a traditional king cake spot. They're pretty innovative as well. So they'll do their traditional. They've got a great traditional king cake which some people say is a lot like curiously like Randazza's, because there was a lot of student involved there. But every week they'll do something different, like a boudin king cake or a brownie king cake or a lava king cake, all sorts of things, so that makes it fun too.

Speaker 1: 22:45

You had me at boudin.

Speaker 3: 22:47

Yeah, boudin king cake is really, really good and especially, you know, when I was creating the book and I'm eating hundreds of different king cakes anytime there was a savory one, a sushi king cake or something like that, I was very grateful to give my taste buds a rest for a second. I was very grateful to give my taste buds a rest for a second.

Speaker 1: 23:02

But on these newfangled king cakes, are the older establishments doing them too, or are they kind of just sticking with the tried and true?

Speaker 3: 23:11

It's a little bit of a mix. I think that someplace like Randazzo's, I don't think they're doing boudin king cake. I don't think they're getting wildly innovative because for them their business is all about that tradition, so I don't think their customers would even want it. So I think that you have that. And then I think maybe a place like Kaluta's is a little bit of a unicorn kind of between the two. They've got their traditional, but I think they just have a desire to just try different things. But if you want to have those unique king cakes, then it's best to just go to see what's out there.

Speaker 3: 23:43

Every bakery is putting their own spin on it, and so I don't think there's besides a place like Kaluta's which has the capacity to make so many king cakes. It can try many different styles. Most places are just like oh, this chocolate here has the really good chocolate king cake. There's a Vietnamese restaurant on the West Bank, on the other side of the Mississippi River, and they have like a cafe de sous, you know Vietnamese style of coffee that they put inside a king cake, and then they've got a Andan style like filled king cake as well. So there's all sorts of amazing versions and then that's what I think like when you're going to a king cake party and you want to bring something unique. Finding one of those smaller bakeries that are doing something really different is a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 24:26

Is there such a thing called king cake etiquette?

Speaker 3: 24:29

New Orleans is a funny place because people get really passionate about rules in certain instances, certain instances, and so, for example, there is an ongoing debate about whether you're supposed to keep the knife inside the king cake box or take it outside of the box and wash it, kind of, every time you're done. I think that the people who say they're keeping the knife in, they're getting real loud about it and kind of winning the debate. But that would be an example of like these king cake rules. Another like very like people take it very seriously is that you can not eat king cake outside of carnival season. So again January 6th till this year it's March 4th Sometimes I think last year was January 6th to February 13th, so a much smaller season you are.

Speaker 3: 25:20

If somebody sees you eating king cake on January 4th, I would not be surprised if they knocked it out of your hand, which I always think is funny. Yeah, I always think it's funny, because king cake used to just be a January 6th and January 6th only thing, and so it's fun to think that we are in fact, the ones who have already bastardized this tradition, but now we've kind of set a rule. This is what we know, and so don't deviate from this. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Definitely a king cake etiquette out there.

Speaker 1: 25:47

It's almost like a Hatfields and McCoy sort of thing, right? Yes, wow, absolutely. I mean, listen, I would probably look to smuggle my king cake in somewhere and eat it in the confines of my home, and that's what I would probably do.

Speaker 2: 26:05

That's if you can find it.

Speaker 1: 26:06

I'm sure I'd find a source. They don't make it before, then Really yes. You'd have to pay a chef, a baker or something on the side. Get it brought in. Real hush On the hush man.

Speaker 3: 26:17

Maybe Maybe oh, my goodness. You saying the word king cake smuggle kind of reminded me of something funny that I saw this year for the first time, and so I was on January 6th, I was at Dang Phang Bakery, which Sarah said surprisingly has become it's a Vietnamese bakery that's become the most popular king cake in New Orleans. And so I thought, oh, this will be a good place to get there early and sell some books. And so I asked Linh Tran. I was like oh, when should I get there early and sell some books? And so I asked Lin Tran. I was like oh, when should I get there? And she was like well, we open at eight, but people start getting there at 4.30 in the morning. I was like, okay, I'm not going to get there at 4.30 in the morning, but I'll get there at like seven or so.

Speaker 3: 26:55

And it was cold for New Orleans, it was like 39 degrees, it was chilly and truly. People had started lining up before 5 am, which is bonkers. Now I was there signing books, it was cold, having a nice time, though, and this one guy comes up to me and he says hey, can I buy a book? I was like sure, who do you want me to make it out to, and he was like make it out to the? And he kind of whispered to me he's like make it out to the King Cake Smugglers.

Speaker 3: 27:18

And I was like what is? He was semi-serious and so what? These guys? I figured it out. What these guys do is so they're in Mississippi, along the Gulf Coast, and so they will maybe even Alabama I remember someplace in there and they go to Dongfang once or twice a week and buy as many king cakes as they can get their hands on, which you're only allowed to get like three or four if you stand in line at a time. So they just go in line, buy four, get back in line, buy more, as many as they're allowed to take, and then they drive them back home across the border. So they're smuggling them across the border and they just sell them out of bars near their hometown.

Speaker 1: 28:08

And they're taxing it too. You know, they're taxing that King Cake.

Speaker 3: 28:11

For shame, yeah, I guess. So I mean, they're making money somehow.

Speaker 1: 28:15

Listen, Matt, I know that you have a hard cut off here. I'm going to ask you a question before, before you go. I think you have a photo shoot coming up, right?

Speaker 3: 28:22

I do for the Po'boy book. Yeah, we're in the middle of photo shooting right now. What advice do you have for first-time visitors to New Orleans on the best ways to experience this thing that is king cake? Yes, that's a very good question, and I feel like if somebody has just one king cake, I don't think it's common it's pretty common for them to say something like oh yeah, I mean, king cake was fine, but it's kind of just like a cinnamon roll, right, and so I think that that probably is the very traditional version of King Cake and, you know, maybe with no filling. That's certainly important to try. There's so much nostalgia around that, but I would say, try multiple King Cakes, and there's ways to do that there's.

Speaker 3: 29:08

I think the most interesting development in King Cake in the last couple of years is that there's all of these places now that sell multiple versions in one place, so you don't have to.

Speaker 3: 29:20

It used to be that you'd have to drive around from place to place all over town, putting miles on your car, taking a whole afternoon to try to get even a few King Cake places.

Speaker 3: 29:28

Now you can go to a place called the King Cake Hub and there's going to be 40 to 50 different kinds of King Cake in one place. If you want to just get slices of King Cake, there's a place called the King Cake Feast and the A is in parentheses, so it could be King Cake or maybe the. Oh yeah, the A is in parentheses, so it's like a King Cake Fest or King Cake Feast, and they meet up once a week during carnival season and you can buy slices from like 30 different bakeries, and so I think things like that are a fun way to really get the scope and variety of what's out there In. That variety is where King Cake gets really interesting and where you see all these different bakers are making their own versions, and behind every single cake there's a story, not just of these bakeries but the story of New Orleans, and I think that's what I tried to do in the book and I think that's where the fun in King Cake is for people coming to try it for the first time.

Speaker 1: 30:51

That's so awesome. Are these guys the restaurants and bakeries and whatnot? Are they set up for shipping? Do they ship these things out of state?

Speaker 2: 30:59

Yeah, they do.

Speaker 3: 31:00

Many do, yeah, many do. They ship these things out of state? Yeah, they do. Many do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, many do. I think my all time favorite is Tartine, and they are pretty inexpensive for a, you know, for a King Cake at this point, especially a King Cake, that's this good. I think it's like 30 bucks or 31 bucks, and then you, they'll, they'll set up for shipping as well, like they'll. They ship two or three times a week. I think they do plenty of bakeries do.

Speaker 1: 31:21

And folks listen. If you want to purchase the Big Book of King Cake, go to thebigbookofkingcakecom. Matt will sign it and ship it. I would do it. He's a good guy. I've seen the book. It's gorgeous. Photography's great. I mean, you know, nothing's as good as a Hernandez pick, but I'm just saying he did a terrific. You know, nothing's as good as a Hernandez pick, but I'm just saying he did a terrific, phenomenal job. I had to say that for my boy, john, over here. Matt, I appreciate you spending some time with us today. We're you and me, or let's get out, let's try to jump on a call. I know that you're swamped. I do want to get on a phone call with you and let's set some other stuff up. I think we have a lot of things we can do. That would just be super amazing for content and, you know, just getting the word out for everything that you're doing and what we're doing.

Speaker 3: 32:05

And yeah, let's do it If it's. If it's King cake related, then whenever you want, let's make it happen. If it's not King cake related, then then I think I'll have so much more time once the season's done, and so you, you tell me, but it might be it might be po' boy related.

Speaker 1: 32:20

I'm just saying okay, it might be po-boy related.

Speaker 2: 32:22

I'm just saying, okay, can I be invited back? Then I'm down, of course.

Speaker 1: 32:25

We'll probably have a line of people here that want to, you know. Hey, can we get to the studio that day? All right, listen, matt, be well, we'll catch you on the other side. Man, be good, okay.

Speaker 3: 32:35

Yeah, thank you, and Sarah, sorry. I an amazing cake today.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Thank you. Can you give the abridged version of how to make a king cake? It takes effort and you have to know what you're doing, but I think like people can do this at home.

Speaker 2: 32:56

They can. It's, it's not, it's really not hard at all. A very basic, simple king cake is. It just takes patience and of course you have to know how to read a recipe. But the abridged version of it is you make a simple kind of brioche style dough. You know you have to bloom yeast, sugar, milk, egg, flour, of course, allow the dough time to rise, roll it out, fill it, roll it up, braid it, form it, allow it to rise again, pop it in the oven until it's golden brown and beautiful, and then you, you ice it however you want.

Speaker 1: 33:40

It's like a four hour process.

Speaker 2: 33:42

Right, you ice it however you want, it's like a four hour process, right? Yes, it can take a little bit longer, a little bit around that time, depending on your humidity level, where you are, how hot your kitchen is, whether you're in the deep South, like the swamp area, like Louisiana, or someplace like here. It just all depends on the humidity that can cause your dough to rise faster, which can speed up the process, which isn't always good, but roughly four to five hours john, I'm waiting to see these pictures already.

Speaker 1: 34:10

I ain't gonna lie, sarah. I mean I'm so happy that you came out today and I know you had a little reservation about it too our, our boy, sean puge river Rivera. Well, you know what, sean? Why don't you get? Look at you, get Sean on the phone. Hello, sean, it's Carl. Walk and talk. How you doing my man, carl what's going on there? Boy, I'll tell you what. I'm never going to call you Pooch again After what I've learned from Chef Sarah.

Speaker 1: 34:41

You know I mean I'll still call you pooch. We had a great, great featured guest in Matt Haynes.

Speaker 4: 34:52

You knew that he was going to be on the show and it was very entertaining. I saw him last week at the King Cake the BYES King Cake, King Cake and Conversation. He was the main focus of the conversation. He was a great guy, Always a great guy.

Speaker 1: 35:01

He's easy to talk to, he's incredibly educated on all things king cake. His new po-boy book is coming out and, uh, I'm kind of excited about that. I need some po-boy in my life.

Speaker 4: 35:12

I don't know when you're getting over here, but that's what we're going to do next time you come here to the studio ironically, that's what we've been doing all day today is making plays for all the private jet leader pilots that are coming in town today, tomorrow, all of the above, so every day. Right now, we're actually for the big games. We are in the preparation, but we have the privilege of we gained the contract to do all the private jets that come in and out. So, as much as I want to enjoy the festivities in New Orleans and all of the hoopla and everything that's going on, it is an opportunity to take advantage of all the great contracts and blessings that come our way economically. So we are definitely hustling.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Well, I would go get yourself some king cake and celebrate.

Speaker 4: 35:55

I'm already about three or four king cakes deep this season, so I think I need to cut back on the king cake. But what's going on, brother?

Speaker 1: 36:02

Yeah, I heard that. I mean, I had half a king cake today myself.

Speaker 4: 36:06

That's your first time having a king cake, correct.

Speaker 1: 36:08

Yes, and I got it on video too. I love it there was almost a fight.

Speaker 2: 36:12

Did the king cake just end?

Speaker 1: 36:14

It was a fight. You had a special shout-out that you wanted to put out there, right.

Speaker 4: 36:20

I do, I do. I want to shout out Eric Cook, the King of Modern Creole. That's his new book that's out right now. But he also, his new book is Modern Creole. But he is the King of Modern Creole. I love him very much, very good friend. We've been in the trenches together a long time in this culinary industry and he is really exciting.

Speaker 4: 36:38

He's just going bending over backwards for Stan Hayes from Operation Barbecue Relief, eric Greenspan from out in LA, who they've been out there feeding everyone, whether it be the firemen who are fighting the fires to the actual people who lost everything in that horrible devastation out there. They were out there fighting the odds, I guess you would say and feeding all those people. And Greenspan and Stan, they handle everything, everything from. They get everything in the hills of Appalachians, where I was, and then they were down in Tampa. They kind of help out everybody, kind of like how we try to help everybody out.

Speaker 4: 37:11

But Eric Cook is making sure, bending over backwards to make sure that we're all accommodated this Friday night and he's kind of throwing a little soiree together. I wish you guys could be here just to kind of honor them and those guyse together. I wish you guys could be here just to kind of honor them. And those guys are in town because they're doing a big NFL barbecue kickoff thing with a bunch of NFL players and stuff like that. So it's really really cool, yeah.

Speaker 4: 37:32

But I just wanted to make sure that Eric Cook was shot out because he is really taking the time to make sure that we're accommodated when obviously in New Orleans, you know hospitality is the name of the game, but you know we're more worried about everyone who's coming in town being taken care of rather than our own. But this time Eric's making sure that. You know, I guess I was rather oxymoronic, because he's taking care of us but we have guests in town and he's bending over backwards to make sure that other chefs that are normally worried about everybody else. He's worried about the chefs rather than worried about the guests. So the chefs are the guests this time. Should I say?

Speaker 1: 38:03

The other day I was on the phone with Aaron Robbins. He was interviewed by Operation Barbecue and it was a terrific interview. He's in an area that was affected. Over there, boneyard is his barbecue spot. He's been around for 20 years plus. He's actually a culinarian. He's got a heck of a bio. He's going to be on the show. We're going to do a special broadcast for that. So that's coming up and I guess you, meeting with Stan and me with I'd love to give them some as much support as possible. It's a, it's a great outfit and they they do a lot.

Speaker 4: 38:46

They do a lot for everybody. You know what I'm saying. Every Greenspan as well. I mean. He killed it out there at the world food championships with his demos and whatnot, and he always adds a spice of life and, just you know, humility and humor to everything he does. So it's really he's fun to hang with and it's going to be awesome. I have about a five-hour period to be able to hang out with everybody and then get back to the grind of making sure that these jets, when they leave New Orleans, are fed, you know, so we're feeding all the pilots, the stewardesses, the stewards and the actual people who are in the airplanes that are leaving or should I say private jets. So I have about five hours to hang out and hopefully maybe consume one or two drinks and then get back to normal life and spend the whole night from 7 pm till 7 am make accommodating all these jets. So it's it's pretty cool, it's pretty fun. At the same time it's the arduous process.

Speaker 1: 39:38

You know you're fighting the good fight culinary life you are doing that, I'm fighting.

Speaker 4: 39:42

A good fight, babe, you're doing a good fight.

Speaker 1: 39:43

Culinary life you are doing that.

Speaker 4: 39:44

I'm fighting a good fight. The energy is real here in new orleans, man, I love it. It's, uh, it's. I'm proud to be from new orleans, I'm proud to be from the hospitality, you know, mecca of the united states and maybe even the world. But we're hosting. We, you know, we hold a record for the most super bowls and we know how to do it. Well, we're built to host. That's what we call it. We're built to host.

Speaker 1: 40:01

That's what we call it.

Speaker 4: 40:02

We're built to host. Who do you got on the game? That's a tough one. A tough one. I tell you what for the economic value? The fact that the Swifties come in town and you know Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey and all that hoopla with. You know the bandwagon that that brings and spends a lot more money and brings a lot of. You know we've had a lot of kind of some bad things happening down here with the. You know certain things that happened on the new year, what have you? Everybody reads the paper. You know that's bringing a lot more fanfare to the city and I kind of appreciate that. Taylor Swiss was here maybe about a month or two ago, sold out all three nights at the superdome and obviously she's going to be in town for her, for her boyfriend playing. So I don't like the fact that they're going to three-peat, but I kind of want them to three-peat with Kansas City. But I'm a diehard Saints fan, so at the end of the day, that's who I really want to win Next year, always next year.

Speaker 1: 40:49

You heard it here, folks Always, next year it's a true story Always next year.

Speaker 4: 40:53

Baby, Always next year.

Speaker 1: 40:55

All right, good to catch you on side B.

Speaker 4: 41:00

Gotcha. Love y'all. Johnny, I love you. Baby. Sarah, I'm so glad you were on there. Carl, you know I love you, boy, Y'all be good.

Speaker 1: 41:05

Go get it.

Speaker 2: 41:06

Talk to you soon, all right.

Speaker 1: 41:08

Sarah, I am thrilled that you made it out here today. I really am.

Speaker 2: 41:13

I'm super happy to be here.

Speaker 1: 41:15

This was harmless right.

Speaker 2: 41:17

It really was. It wasn't as bad as I built it up in my head to be.

Speaker 1: 41:21

She was nervous. She was very nervous. We talked about it. There was a ledge, brought her back in. It was okay. You know, we're still waiting on King Cakes to arrive to the studio. We have chef Ricardo Castro here, local baker and chef that sent some, and I can't wait. I saw pictures of what they look like. Can't wait for them to get here. And there's actually a new orleans product I think it's rendazos. That's gonna, that's that's due to arrive as well. We're looking to take pictures of everything, some really great king cake photography and, uh, man, I'll tell you what I'm gonna have some more king cake now. How do you like that?

Speaker 2: 42:03

you want me to cut you a slice? Oh hell, yeah, okay, all right, listen sarah.

Speaker 1: 42:07

Again. Appreciate you, john. I'm gonna take all the king cake you're getting. On, we are out.