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Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Parish Epiphany: King Cake Bakers of South Louisiana

ORAL HISTORY

Robert Carriker

Robert was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, where his father worked as a History Professor at Gonzaga University. During summer road trips with his parents and two brothers, he was assigned the role of “Food Chairman,” deciding where the family would stop to eat. When he moved to Lafayette, Louisiana to become a professor in the emerging field of public history, Robert carried on that road trip tradition by traveling across the state to sample and review the regional fare.

During Mardi Gras 2015, he invented a new seasonal specialty combining four Louisiana staples–boudin, cracklin, king cake, and Steen’s Cane Syrup. After Lafayette’s Daily Advertiser touted his ‘boudin and cracklin king cake,’ it went viral, drawing national and international attention. Robert’s inbox was soon stuffed with more king cake requests than his home kitchen could handle. To meet demand, he handed the orders over to Billy and Denny Guilbeaux of Twin’s Burgers and Sweets, a restaurant/bakery just down the road. Robert’s king cake has since become a Mardi Gras fixture imitated by bakers across the state and beyond.

Date of interview:
2022-04-05

Interviewer:
Phillip Norman

Photographer:
Emily R. Williams

Download Transcript

“

"If you think about it, those displaced Louisianans, they're sittin' around sayin' to all the people who will listen to them, 'Oh, I miss king cake. Oh, I miss boudin. Oh, I miss cracklin. Oh, I miss Steen's.' But then, all of a sudden, there's this one thing that's four of those in one. [They’re] like, 'Ahh, I've gotta have it and I've gotta share it!'" - Robert Carriker

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