From KCRW, I'm Evan Kliman and you're listening to good food.

What's purple gold and green all over?

Here's a hint.

It's sweet, filled with cream, and there's a tiny plastic baby hiding inside.

I'm talking about King Cake, of course, that seasonal expression of joy and creativity centered in the city of New Orleans. It's a tradition that of

joy and creativity centered in the city of New Orleans.

It's a tradition that crosses communities and cultures and is a unique

expression of the city.

Several years ago, writer Matthew Hayne set out to document these cakes and all their

glorious variety and he came away with a coffee table book of photographs and stories from

all over the region. The big tradition deserves the big book of

King Cake. Hi Nat! Hey there how are you? I'm good. You know I remember the first

time I opened your book and I was just blown away by the

variety and just the joyfulness that are king cakes and how they express themselves in so many different ways.

What made you decide to go on this quest?

Yeah, I mean I had a very similar feeling to what you just described.

And so in New Orleans it's common to have what's called a kingcake party and the idea is that all the attendees will bring their favorite kingcake and there's a vote at the

embassy who brought the best one and it's kind of a point of pride to introduce others to hopefully their new favorite version.

And so I didn't know what my favorite king cake was at the time.

This was back in 2017.

And so I googled the best king cakes in New Orleans.

And I found a top 10 list and I put those in a spreadsheet

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