This week's episode is different by design. There's no stove on, no knives hitting the board, no brush to plate something beautiful. Instead, what we have at the table today is history, tradition, and intention. Putra Vera drove these king cakes from New Orleans to the studio. Not because it was easy, but because some things deserve to be carried, not shipped. We're sitting with king cakes from Brennan's Restaurant, gifted to us by the Brennan's family for the Smartie Girl Edition. From James Beard recipient Neil Bodenheimer, owner of Cure Bar and Chair of Tales of the Cocktail, whose cake is a collaboration with IU Beakhouse, made by Food & Wine's best new chef of 2025, Kelly Jacques. And from Dongfang, Bakery, home to one of the most iconic James Beard award-winning king cakes in America. Joining us at the table is writer and author Matt Haynes, making his third Mardi Gras time appearance on Walk & Talk, helping us to unpack what Mardi Gras and king cake actually mean beyond the parade routes. We also have one Michelin star chef, Michael Calantes in studio. He's not here to cook, but to help bring a cocktail to life from Neil Bodenheimer. Because this conversation is about how food, drink, and culture intersect at the highest level without losing their soul. This episode connects James Beard and Michelin worlds, writers and chefs, tradition and evolution. Today is in about recipes, it's about respect. Let's break bread, or should I say, let's break king cake. Ah, alright, so today, what a day. Hell of a day. Hell of a day. Pooch man. You're gangster. Thank you sir. I appreciate that. I tell you what, watching you guys figure out this little technical difficulty there, it let me know that, you know, it definitely, you know, God puts challenges in front of you, but it's all worth taking them all, you know? I'll tell you what, yeah, so the audience, you don't see what goes on behind the scenes, and technology is wonderful, and equally not wonderful. A lot of challenges that take place in putting on these productions. Pooch, it started with you yesterday. You went around New Orleans picking up king cakes. It's already busy out there as it is, isn't it? It was, it's pretty busy. It was early morning, so it wasn't too bad, but then again, I had to drive all the way to Tampa, which was about maybe 11 hours after a couple of pit stops. 12 hours maybe altogether. Normally, I put you up to this stuff. This was your idea. Man, it was just, it was the right time, the right place. You know, Neil and I had just forged a relationship. Matt and I have had a relationship for, shoot, maybe three years, four or five years. We were on a podcast a long time ago together, and I really wanted to show, I really feel that New Orleans is going through another renaissance. We've gone through so many renaissance, but we have the Michelin guide there now. A lot more eyes are on New Orleans, and I think a lot is expected of New Orleansians and New Orleans chef and culture bears. And I just figured that may as well go ahead and do it. At the same time, I'm not going to let anybody handle part of New Orleans culture and tradition and throw it on a conveyor belt and throw it in the back of a truck and go somewhere. I had to handle all that with care, and I don't mind doing it. Let's get Matt on the call. Let's usher him on. Matt, how are you? I'm doing fantastic. It's the middle carnival season. How could I be anything but? Hey, Lumbo. Amen to that. This is your third outing on the show, man. I think this is turning into tradition. I love it. Yeah, thank you for having me back again. I appreciate it, and I hope we get to keep doing it. Well, today's a special day because, as you heard in the monologue, we've got Chef Michael Calantes, we've got Neil Bodenheimer, Pooch. This is a big show, and the reality is, I think we're doing different things, and the things that we're doing are pretty large, large scale. So with that said, let's jump into this. Let's get into King Cake and what it represents to New Orleans beyond the party, beyond the parade. Let's talk a little bit about that. You know, I'll start from a slightly different angle. You know, the biggest mistake that I think people outside of Louisiana or maybe Mobile or other hubs in Mardi Gras might make is that they think that carnival season is all about beads and, you know, flashing erotic parts and getting wildly drunk. And while you can find each of those components, if you go down to Bourbon Street, I think to locals, this season is really about community and celebrating with your friends and family. And to me, that's exactly what King Cake is. And, you know, even though, you know, as the exact shape and makeup of the cake has changed over the centuries and millennia, and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that, it has always been a cake that is meant to be shared with your community and the people that you love. You know, you rarely find someone eating a King Cake by themselves. And while I've definitely been frustrated at times because some baker I love doesn't sell King Cakes by the individual slice, I think it's a nice thing that this is still a food that is meant to be enjoyed communally, like you guys are doing at the studio right now. And so, you know, one quick story that I really love, and it's from the coronavirus pandemic, you know, to kind of illustrate what I'm saying. And so there was a year when there were no carnival parades at all. And the Mardi Gras season looked really different that year. You know, parades, balls, parties were all largely canceled. But bakeries were still making King Cakes, even though most people weren't having King Cake parties. And so a King Cake party in modern times is basically whatever went at the party brings their favorite King Cake to share, and maybe there's a vote or something to see who brought the best one. Anyway, King Cake parties were abolished that year because of COVID. And what I heard people doing that I loved was that they would organize groups of friends online and everyone in the group would buy their favorite King Cake. And then they would all slice up their cake at home and then go around and deliver them to everyone else's porches. So now you'd have one slice of each of all of those cakes on your porch waiting for you, and then you'd get on Zoom and hang out with friends for the night like a little virtual King Cake party. And so the King Cake tradition persevered even though little else did that year. And I really love that. And I think it illustrates what Mardi Gras, Carnival, King Cake are all about in New Orleans, that communal feeling. Is there a timing factor for King Cake? Is it something where, obviously it's not a traditional seasonal dessert. This is something different, something more special. Get into that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad you asked this one. This is something I wrote about recently for the Gambit here in New Orleans, and it was a really fun article to write. I think timing is a huge part of the King Cake tradition. For thousands of years, this tradition has always been connected to a winter festival that is somehow looking forward to the renewal that comes with springtime. And so we'll do a little walk through history. So millennia ago, the Romans had a tradition very similar to King Cake that was centered around the winter solstice on December 21st. And the celebration was that the winter solstice, you know, the longest night of the year and the shortest amount of daylight in a single day in the year. Celebrating because every single day after that, the sun was going to rise a little higher in the sky and the days were going to get longer and we were going to get closer to spring. And in fact, their version of King Cake, it wasn't called King Cake yet, it was circular and golden like the sun because this was a celebration of the sun's return. It's a very time-oriented. And starting in the Middle Ages, Christians adopted this same tradition. Instead of Saturnalia, they celebrate Christmas, and it's not a coincidence that the two holidays are celebrated the same time of year. And then on the 12th night of Christmas, Christians throughout Europe had their own versions of King Cake. Still exists to this day. I mean, it's meant to honor the three kings who on the 12th night of Christmas or the epiphany or Kings Day or whatever you call it, are said to have found the baby Jesus and presented their gifts. You know, we think of this as a religious holiday, which it is, of course, but at its core, it's also a holiday meant to celebrate the same thing that the pagan Romans were celebrating. And we're turning a corner on the calendar and spring is coming, so let's keep our collective spirits up. And that leads us into nowadays in Louisiana. This is the only place where King Cake is associated with Mardi Gras instead of Christmas. And Mardi Gras and Carnival season are also just another winter festival. And so people celebrate carnival all around the world. I think we forget this sometimes. So Louisianaans, we have our version, but Canadians have their version and the French have their versions and Germans have several versions. And this one place in Italy, they throw oranges at each other. And this place in Spain, they celebrate carnival with both sites. And in Britain and Ireland, they eat pancakes and in Russia, they eat cheese and they burn efferges of winters, spirits, and even parts of India have their own versions of carnival. But carnival exists because of Lent and Lent exists because there was historically a time when in the Northern Hemisphere, there wasn't there was not a lot of food available. And all of these carnival traditions are basically this massive party before we are forced to deprive ourselves during what we now call Lent. And we try to raise society's morale and put on a few pounds before a difficult period. So we eat too much and we drink too much and we wear colorful costumes and we parade. And in Louisiana, King Cake is a big part of that tradition. And it's a tradition that is meant to get us ready for the discipline required to get through the period. We now call Lent and to get us excited for spring. And so it's to answer your question very directly. Timing is pretty much everything when it comes to King Cake. And this is a perfect bridge because, you know, Pooch, you chose to drive this product to King Cake, all those King Cakes here. Why is that important to you? It was for me to support the chefs. The chefs were generous enough to do this and take time out of there. This is the busy season for chefs, especially, should I say, bakers. And they, the passion and quality they put into that, I didn't want to jeopardize that in any way, shape, or form. So it was up to me to be that steward or I guess culture bearer and bring it to share it with you guys. You know, three people who, yes, you've learned a lot about King Cake since you've known me, but you wouldn't have known about King Cake unless you knew me. And it's my duty to really explain to you the people who are really putting a creative spin on it, but also giving you some tradition and celebrating with my people and my friends and my family, what we do in New Orleans. Well, not to mention where we happen to have you here too. So, so, so. Well, for me, this is a class is in session, man. This is this is all new territory. You know, as a chef, you, you know, everything has the history, right? Or why the things are being done or, and it's so great to see this part of America celebrated in such a way that's, you know, generational old, but so rooted to one specific place, right? Like as chefs, we're always trying to find a connection point where we could take guests to a place, right? And then I always say this and I love hearing this from Thomas Keller. It's like when some the best compliment a chef can get is like, hey, this reminds me of a place or a time something, you know, in my past. And I think that's really incredible at this because this is all new to me. Neil, your King Cake is a collaboration with A. U. Bakehouse with Chef Jock. What responsibility comes with touching something this rooted in tradition when you're operating at a beard level? Well, so first of all, I mean, it's, it's so fascinating to hear what Matt was talking about about the history of the King Cake, right? And that just kind of shows you what's at stake when you're when you're interpreting something that is cultural, right? I mean, you're talking about something that's going back to Greek and Roman times, right? And so as someone that loves history, that it carries a lot of weight with me. And I always, you know, I always take it seriously and understand that, that, you know, you don't, you don't mess with culture without understanding where you're trying to go. And so for me, it was really fun to get to work with Kelly and Sam from IU because, you know, we, I mean, I know the quality of product that they put out. So at a high level of trust with them, and they were really interested in doing something that was cocktail focused and kind of really new like New Orleans canon of cocktails. Again, something cultural and very important to me near and dear to my heart. So it was really cool to watch them interpret a cocktail. You know, we gave them a list of cocktails we thought would translate well to baking. And of course, they just kind of ran ran from there. So I don't feel like we did a whole lot. I feel like support for Walk and Talk media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. The IU team did a lot and we were just there to help guide them on inspiration just a little bit. So talk about the inspiration to that. What's the, what's the contrast or the, the, the profile matchup? So the matchup is this and you have to remember like, I don't think you're ever going to be able to take a cocktail and go one for one into the world of baking. You know, you still have to make things that are delicious that people want to eat. And so, you know, I really loved how they, how they put cherry and vermouth together to really amp up the fruit aspect of it. And so, you know, you taste vermouth, but you, but you taste it in a really pleasing way for a culinary application. And then I really loved the, you know, the brown butter pecan. So as Kelly said, it was meant to mimic cognac. And I thought it was fascinating and cognac is an important player in the Vuceray, right? And it's, it gives it's, it's, it's smoothness, it's richness. And so to me, that I thought that was a really cool thing and a good way to get there. And then the most important part for me is the, is the frangipan. And that's the, and they use benedictine for that. And so you were able to get that, you know, that that's the ingredient that really sets the Vuceray cocktail apart from other from other methatans and methatan variations. So it really reinforces it and, and, and kind of anchors it in, in almond. And, and I just think it works really well. I feel like it was an easy drinker. We did, we shot the drink, we filmed it. And at the end, I can tell you with assurance because, you know, I had probably the lion's share of that cocktail. Um, it was right on easy, smooth, satisfying, dare I say, refreshing. Yeah. And that's kind of like the fun thing about that cocktail. And, you know, if that cocktail was made anywhere else but New Orleans, that cocktail would be served up, right? And in New Orleans, just because of our climate, we have a tendency to put more things on ice. And so that's what makes that methatan variation so satisfying. And as the richness by adding a little, a little extra sweetness with the, with the Benedictine, it would be tough if it didn't have any extra dilution and extra chill, right? And so you need, you need a little extra sugar to maintain the body as you add dilution and chill. Chef Michael, you operate in the Michelin world. When you look at something like King Cake, what do you see as a chef? Nostalgia, discipline, obligation. You're really trying to, um, you know, honor history while still pushing forward something new. And I think that's like the hardest thing, right? If you're just creating, like, you know, when you're just creating a cocktail, just creating it, right? It's, you have, it's boundless. But staying somewhere where you have a little bit of tradition to keep you really, you know, grounded. I think that's, that's what makes it the interesting part of creating within boundaries of that is like, it's interesting because it has to be rooted. There still has to be nostalgia. You still have to bring people to a place of where they know something, you know, growing up having this, this, uh... Four out of five hospitality professionals have faced at least one mental health challenge during their career. Stress, burnout, anxiety. These are everyday realities in kitchens, dining rooms, and bars across North America. The Burnchef Project, North America, is here to change that. They provide free, anonymous support, direct care, training, and self-care resources designed specifically for chefs, servers, and hospitality staff. From therapy services to educational modules, they're answering the call for help in one of the toughest industries. It can't be done alone. Your financial support makes this possible, ensuring that every hospitality professional has access to the tools they need to thrive. Join the movement in breaking the stigma. Email uscanada at theburnchefproject.com for donation details and mailing information, or learn more about the mission at theburnchefproject.com. Yeah, that's 100% right. And that is really the challenge of being a New Orleanian. I mean, we have, and Pooch will tell you, we have this great culinary and beverage history here, and we're always trying to honor it because it's our culture. But really the story of New Orleans, and I've said this a thousand times, is the relationship between preservation and progress. I always think about it like this. How do we honor the past and how do we look forward? And it's difficult. But I think anybody that does anything that's even mildly a creative pursuit understands that it's nice to have some constraints when you create. And I think that helps us quite a bit. It's kind of like, you know, as young chefs and creators in this field where early in your career, you want to create, you want to almost destroy the past. And as your years go by, you really want to honor it. It's almost like I always say to my young cooks, I take more time taking things off of me. I take more time taking things off the plate than adding. Yeah. Addition by subtraction. Neil, tell me about the cocktail. Exactly ingredients and what's your preparation in making it? Well, the great thing about the Vu Corre is, you know, it was invented in 1937, 1938. So it's pretty straightforward. And it was invented by a bartender at the Montelillon Hotel named Walter Bergeron. And so the goal was to represent all the different influences of New Orleans. So if you think about it, you have cognac for French. So you do three quarters of an ounce of cognac. In this case, we used INVS and then three quarters of an ounce of Sazerac rye whiskey and then three quarters of an ounce of Carpano, Classico, Rosso, Verruti, Torino. So we do that. We add that together. And that's very basic Manhattan build. And then from there, you add a quarter ounce of Benedictine. And then you add two dashes of Hengester bitters and two dashes of Peixos bitters. And you give it a quick stir. You don't want to, oh, we don't want to stir too much because you're going to strain it over ice. So it's going to continue to evolve. So, you know, that's one of the keys is always thinking about how long you stir and how much water you put in a drink before it goes to a guest. And then you're going to take a wide peeler knife and you're going to cut a nice long lemon peel off of a lemon. Always nice to have one that has good pock marks. It means it has a lot of oil in it. And then you face the outside of the peel towards the glass and you just gently squeeze it and it'll push all of the oil out of the little pockets. And you try and get that over the drink more than on top of the drink. And then once you have that oil laden peel, I always like to kind of dot it around the glass. The glue that you want to get the oil onto the glass as opposed to on top of the beverage because you'll just drink it right off in a sip or two. Whereas if it's on your hand or on the outside of the glass, you'll continue to smell lemon. I think that's brilliant. You know what's also interesting and I did not mention this yet. You batched that out. You know, Pooch not only brought a king cake straight from New Orleans, but you, Mr. Bodenheimer, you put that batch together. And here's what I think is fascinating because I'm a geek with culinary. I'm a geek with all of these things. We had a James Beard dude and a Michelin dude, you know, like you made the drink and you know, you batched it and then Chef Mikey made it. And you know what, man? That was badass. It was really cool. All I had to do was do the lemon right and hopefully I did that right. Well, yeah, it's just the fact that it happened the way that it did. I mean, who else is doing this stuff? You know what I found really interesting when I was watching Neil batch it all out, but he, you know, he's like, I'll put a lot of bitters because it's going to expand as you travel with it. And I was just like the brilliance and the chemistry of all that to know how this is going to travel and you know, it's each a heart out everybody. You know, we have the opportunity to experience some of the best of the best and from the best people and it's a great privilege. Poochie, in your estimation, I just mentioned beard, Michelin, like it's a little thing, it's a cocktail, whatever. But isn't that something that's hard to put together? Isn't this something that's different? Isn't this something that for you, you're a culinary chef, dude? Like isn't this cool? It's really cool. And I think it's a testament to tell everybody in the industry, whether it be a cocktail industry, the restaurant industry, any industry really, it's forging relationships with people that are passionate and that care just as much as you care about the culture and about people's work that they put out there and their artistry. And when you find yourself and you surround yourself with those people, these things honestly come pretty easily because they know that they can trust you with their passion and their creation on a 500 mile trip, you know, to Florida to expose this to the world. Chef, there was no cooking. You thought when I called you, you know, well, what am I, what am I to cook up? I'm like, no man, nothing. You're going to come in, you're going to make a, you know, pork cocktail and we're going to sit and have funny kinkake. How important is this to you? Yeah, when you told me I'm doing cocktails, I was like, you know, I'm a chef. But I love it. This is, this is collaboration and it's finest, right? I get to learn so much about kinkakes and New Orleans just through food. And this is not what we're doing in everyday life of being a chef in this hospitality industry. We're telling stories. We're telling culture. We're inviting people to our table, right? And I joke about that lemon, but even in that instance, never bartended ever besides Jell-O shots in college. Watching a quick video of how Neil wants to precisely do the lemon. I mean, that's, that's the level in care that I think is so amazing with these collaborations that we get to do. I mean, honestly, I was like, okay, now I know I'm going to like re-school all my bartenders at my restaurants, you know. Maybe we're going to have Neil come down. That's just me. I see big things. I mean, Matt, you heard what Chef Michael Pooch and Neil had to say. What say you? What do you think about all this? Yeah, you know, something that Neil said that I really loved that I think about, but I never thought about like this is kind of this back and forth between creativity versus preservation. And I think like it's very irrelevant with king cakes. And so, you know, for king cakes, you have versions that are the same recipe that families have been making for more than 50 years. And you know, that's tradition. You have, and you have bakers who are making king cakes based on things that they ate that those recipes came from 100 plus years ago. But then at the same time, you also have sushi king cakes and Vietnamese inspired king cakes and a king cake that's a note to Elvis. And like a king cake, there's truly a, there's really a dog treat king cake that a woman makes. She said she recently made one for 30 dogs at a dog party. So there's all this evolution as well. And I guess I love that these, these two camps exist that are constantly debating and puking and pulling because if we only have the traditionalists, the king cake would eventually just become like this historic food in a time capsule that doesn't match our evolving taste at all. And that would be a shame. No, you had me at sushi, man. When I was eating all these king cakes for the book, obviously most of them are sweet and that's a lot of sweets to eat. And that's pretty much all I was eating in an effort not to get, you know, real heavy as well. Oh, anytime my savory king cake with the sushi king cake came, people were like, that's not really a king cake. I was like, man, I do not care. This is just delicious and different. So I need it. I love that. But like, so I'm the, I'm the noob and all the king cakes, right? So what is, what are the criteria for you that just screams, you know, tradition or that you really say, Hey, this is how it, you know, this is what I expect, I guess, or what people expect in this. Yeah, I think like the idea of what is or what is not. I do a king cake history talk sometimes for some people. And I kind of organize the big book of king cake. It starts with the most traditional one in New Orleans, a Mackenzie's king cake. And then it ends with like an ice cream king cake or something that probably by toward the end of the book, I'd say most people are looking at these and they're like, is that really a king cake? And at the beginning of the book, most people are like in those first 100 pages are like, Oh, these are absolutely king cakes, but you will get some people who say that the only real king cake is the king cake on that first page, the Mackenzie's. And everything else is a bastardization of that. And so I love that like everyone will have a different answer to your question about what is or isn't a king cake. For me, I think that the important, the most important things are that I think, and maybe it's not any of these, but but again, if you're missing one of them, or two of them, I think it's okay, but you don't want to be missing all of them. And so the purple, green and gold, that's kind of a Louisiana king cake thing. I think it's nice to have not necessary. I seem like savory king cakes that have they die like Parmesan cheese on a crawfish king cake and they die at purple, green and gold. But for me, the biggest ones are, you know, kind of the circular shape meant to emulate a crown of the three kings, some people say the shape is a big part. And I think the most important thing is having something hidden inside the cake. So usually that's the little plastic baby. But some bakeries in Louisiana, they do what the French used to do and they have these little ceramic porcelain fevs like little figurines. That could go inside the cake. Before that, people were using beans. And I know actually IU Bakehouse, they put a bean inside their king cake instead of a baby or a fev. This session of Walk and Talk Media is made possible by Citrus America, delivering fresh Florida citrus and juice solutions to food service professionals nationwide. Learn more at CitrusAmerica.com So does Noka. Noka does as well. The key to the right. Yes, exactly. And I think just the idea of having something inside the cake and no matter what it is, it is always meant to be signifying kind of like good luck and prosperity in the year ahead. And that's always a part of what it means. And so I think to me, that's the most important part of the tradition. And like I said before, like the idea that we're sharing it with our community and family and friends, it's a communal affair. I think that's a big part of it too. Pooch, are you a traditionalist? So you're going to get down on the spicy tuna king cake? I will definitely get down on the spicy tuna king cake. I tell you what, king cakes to me are probably the only thing that I truly believe that, you know, I love to see people's creativity with certain things in Louisiana culture that I'm just a true purist. It's beautiful to see for instance, Dung Fung do some things. I love the traditional king cakes, the McKenzie's, the Haido does a really, really good one. Brennan does the really great traditional along with, you know, shout out to Drew Pope for sending out those king cakes, but along with the Brennan's and the Barser king cakes. Everyone's doing so many creative things, but I really love to see with king cakes rather than other New Orleans traditional foods. But it's really, it's crazy. I am ready to try the sushi king cake now to be honest with you. It's got me hungry. I mean, I saw Mike's eyes lit up when I saw that. Yeah. When Matt said the sushi king cake. And who's doing that in New Orleans? Matt, you remember who that was? Yeah, yeah, a rock and sake. There's a couple of rock and sake. It's the one on Old Meterie Road. Yes, they do it. Yes, yes, yes, they'll do it. You got to order in advance though, because they tend to sell out. So make sure you reserve one. We're still seeing king cakes out of season. Is this or is this like, you know, this is this is the season for king cakes or is this like a. You'll see some Christmas time and then you'll see some St. Patty's Day. You'll see some Valentine's, but then again, a lot of times, you know, Christmas time is king cake season in a sense. And then I love that that it's time in place. Mardi Gras falls two days after Valentine's this day. So there'll probably be a lot of renditions in the Valentine's there, but I'll let Matt answer that actually. I went to an event on January 5th for it was called the Countdown to Carnival. So it was the night of January 5th. I got there at like 7pm. And we were there till like one in the morning. There's a lot of a lot of drinking involved. I was selling books, so I was not doing much drinking. And I was watching and I remember there was a they started giving they started handing out slices of king cake at about 1130pm. So January 5th. This is the day before January 6th is when you're supposed to be eating king cake. Start a carnival season. And this one girl, she had the king cake in her hands. It was a woman. She took a big bite of the king cake and her friends, everyone was pretty alcohol fueled. Just laid into her. We're yelling at her. I'll dare you if there's a hurricane, it's going to be your fault for eating king cake early. And it was a real mess. People take it real seriously. You eat it between January 6th and you eat it until Mardi Gras Day. And don't eat it outside that window is how a lot of people feel about it. So I just want to say, you know, speaking of hurricanes, go Canes. Go Canes. C A N E S Canes baby. Just saying college football. So amount of somebody's listening to this episode that's not from New Orleans. What do you hope that they understand differently about Mardi Gras and king cakes after after today? Two thoughts that are hopping into my mind. One is kind of what we're just talking about. Kind of piggybacking on the creativity versus preservation piece. I guess one baker described carnival season. I mean, king cake season as some of us call it as an art walk where the galleries are actually our city's bakeries. And there are hundreds of types of king cake now. So I think that's really true. And so one thing I would want people to know or to think about king cake and Mardi Gras differently is that if you had a king cake from your grocery store in Tennessee or something, that's just there. There's there's so many different kinds of king cake there and there are excellent ones. We're talking about what happens when Michelin James Beard meet and make a king cake. Partners of Walk and Talk media include Aussie Select providing fully cooked premium Australian lamb trusted by chefs for quality and consistency. Learn more at AussieSelect.com Exactly. There's there's some really incredible ones and there's humongous variety even for people who don't like sweet things. There's savory king cakes out there. And so that's one takeaway. And then I think the other is that I hope they will understand that, you know, what we're doing in New Orleans this time of year, you know, of course it's fun and it's silly and it's a blast. But it's not trivial. It's part of a tradition that's existed for millennia and in many parts of the world. And the cakes and festivals might have different names and they look slightly different. But at their core, this has always been about a society banding together to get through the most difficult time of the year in as high of spirits as possible. And to look forward to springtime, you know, when the earth is reborn with new crops and better weather. And, you know, we're not in danger of starving to death during winter like our ancestors would have been. But it's still a celebration that serves its purpose today. I can't imagine a place with higher spirits than a bunch of New Orleansians eating king cake during your on the parade route. And so all of you should come in and check it out if you haven't been to New Orleans from Artiwa before. They definitely be to two New Orleans hacks for king cakes. You always, by the last week of season right before Mardi Gras, you buy four or five because you want to put in the freezer, you put some in the freezer. But also, guys, you makes a hell of a French toast. So I definitely would recommend getting a cream cheese filled king cakes, saving that and making a French toast with it. Well, I got to tell you, you guys were awesome today. Man, I see some things happening with this sushi king cakes and whatnot. All right. Hey, Neil, how do we get in touch with you? Well, I mean, I'm always around, Carl, but probably the best way to do it is to find me on Instagram, Neil Boatie, M-E-A-L-B-O-D-I-E. And, you know, it just hit me with a direct message that you need to get in touch with me and follow what we're doing. I'm squarely Gen X, so my entire life is not online, but that'll have to do. Well, you know what? I mean, we're all basically all Gen X here. And I'm just glad that my old life isn't online, you know? So hey, hey, hey, what's up? We're going to catch you in a little bit and, you know, we're going to do some stuff together. I think there's some collab work that we can do at the restaurant, right, Mike? Yeah, Neil, I've got a vinyl record cocktail bar, pizza bar. This is, this would be such a great time. I'll take you to Disney. I'll get you a turkey leg, too, man. It's on me. Oh, man, I am so freaking in. Let's do it. All right, excellent. Chef Michael, how do we find you? MikeColontis.com, Chef Mike Colontis on IG. Poochie. FooDeePooTooDee, F-O-O-D-I-E-P-A-T-U-T-I-E. And you also can catch me as a WikiHell expert, peeps. Oh, yeah. Mr. Matt Hans, how do we find in you? Okay, so you can, my website is thebigbookofkingcake.com. And so you can order the big book of King Cake there. I can sign and personalize it or the little book of King Cake, which is my children's book. Or you can find me on Instagram at MattHansRights, M-A-T-T-H-A-I-M-E-S-W-R-I-T-E-S. To see what I'm doing. King Cake and the big book of Po Boy related. Excellent. Next book. Excellent. So we jump into some King Cake now. You guys are awesome. We are out. Peace.
