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New Orleans has its share of dynasties. Musically, we’ve got: The Marsalis family and the Boutté crew (Lillian and John, brother and sister, and their nieces, Tricia “Teedy” Boutté and Tanya Boutté, etc., etc. In the restaurant business, it’s the same thing—the Brennans come to mind. But what about the King Cake family, the Randazzos? In this Carnival Season 2014, let’s briefly review the confusing history of that popular purveyor of the New Orleans pastry delight.

The first Randazzo family bakery was the Hi-Lan in Violet, opened in 1965 by Sam Randazzo and his sons Manuel, Lawrence and Anthony and later moved to Chalmette. In 1992, Manuel “Manny” Randazzo, Jr., Manuel’s son, opened Randazzo’s Fine Cakes and Pastries in Metairie, (now called Manny Randazzo’s King Cakes); his uncles sued, challenging his right to Hi-Lan’s original king cake recipe, but dropped the suit. Other family members opened bakeries in Slidell and Covington along the way.  Manny’s ex-wife Dianne even opened a bakery in Metairie that can’t legally use the Randazzo’s name for its king cake recipe. There’s still a bakery run by a Sam Randazzo descendant in Chalmette, Nonna Randazzo’s.

In 2013 the pecan praline king cake prepared by Manny Randazzo’s King Cakes in Metairie won the New Orleans Times-Picayune annual competition for best king cake, “The King of King Cakes.” It certainly can claim the original Randazzo’s recipe—carrying on Mr. Sam Randazzo’s Hi-Lan tradition to the 21st century and delighting Carnival revelers, both here and wherever Federal Express delivers!