The lengthy 2025 Carnival season is exceptionally positioned for a king cake deep dive. And who better than to discuss the festive pastry than Matt Haines, author of The Big Book of King Cake.
The New Orleans-based writer and king cake enthusiast helps us peer into the history of the famed treat, sharing his personal favorite—and what new “Big Book” he’ll release this fall.
Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.
You’re from Long Island originally. What brought you to New Orleans?
I was going to grad school for nonprofit management in New York City and rotating that with teaching marching band in Asia. I was kind of going back and forth, like doing a semester at school, and then six months in Japan, Thailand or Singapore. After one of the stints, it was time to get an internship, and I found one in New Orleans with St. Bernard Project. This was in 2009. I thought I’d be here for six months, and it’s ended up being 16 years.
I’m sure it’s got nothing to do with the food. Speaking of which, your book makes my mouth water. How’d you get the idea for it?
In 2017, I was invited to a king cake party, my first one. And I was like, ‘What in the world is that?’ I was told by the host that everybody was going to bring their favorite king cake, and there would be a big vote, and whoever brought the best king cake would be crowned champion. I am a very competitive person, and I was determined to find the best king cake. So, I Googled “top 10 king cakes in New Orleans” and made a spreadsheet. But then I found another list and another, and all these other recommendations. I ended up with 103 king cakes on my spreadsheet, and I was able to eat 88 of them.
What king cake won at the party?
The cinnamon cream cheese from Tartine, which is also my personal favorite. There are a lot of great king cakes out there, and some are very close in my mind to Tartine. Of course, everybody has different tastes and preferences and nostalgia points, which is what makes creating a book like this so much fun.
Tell us about your career shift from nonprofits to food writing.
The same year I did the spreadsheet, I hiked the Appalachian Trail. Everybody gets a trail nickname, and mine was King Cake. I’d done some writing about the trail, and when I got back to New Orleans, I thought, OK, I’m going to try to be a writer. I slowly picked up gigs. I wrote a lot about king cake because I had sort of become an authority because of the spreadsheet and the publicity I got from it. I wondered if anybody had ever done a book documenting all the king cakes in the city, and when I realized they hadn’t, I was shocked. I thought I’d better do it.
It’s interesting how the world of king cakes can be both traditional and also continue to evolve with new flavors and methods.
With king cakes, you see people leaving their marks and making alterations to a tradition that’s 4,000 years old. It started with the Roman Saturnalia. I think it’s fun to see how newcomers to New Orleans make little changes that alter it slightly while also honoring the tradition. In the telling of these 75 different stories in the book, you get a cross section of what New Orleans king cake culture looks like today, which is really cool.
The book features stories and photos of more than 75 bakeries and more than 200 king cakes. Did you and photographer Randy Krause Schmidt do all the interviews and photos during a single carnival season?
We actually didn’t do any of them during Carnival season. I hired Randy in April of 2021 and we started photo shoots in May of that year. We just felt like it was going to be too disruptive to ask bakeries to do it during the season when they’re so busy. We planned to do them all that spring and summer. We started with a small group, then gradually added more as we showed them what we planned to do. The book went to the printer that October.
How many of those ‘more than 200’ in the book did you eat?
All of them! Because if there’s a king cake in front of you, you have to try it, right?
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What’s changed in the world of king cakes since the book came out?
We’re interacting with king cakes in fun new ways. Here in New Orleans at the King Cake Hub, which has like 40 different bakeries in one place, you can try all sorts of different ones. There’s another similar place on the Northshore. Then you’re seeing places where you can get king cake flights. You’re seeing king cake parties becoming more popular. And finally you’re seeing other things, too, like king cake drive-thrus.
We hear you have a new ‘Big Book’ coming out soon. Tell us about it.
It’s The Big Book of Po’Boy. It’ll be out in November of this year.