Taste Test

The King of NYC’s Galette des Rois

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The galette des rois from Dominque Ansel Bakery. Photo: Melissa Hom

We’re now well into January, which means one thing: White sales! Golden Globes! Breaking resolutions! Okay, it means many things, but the most important of these is king cake season! King cake celebrates the Epiphany, the day the Three Kings visited Baby Jesus, and the season lasts until Mardi Gras. Everyone knows the New Orleans version is covered with purple and green frosting, but a traditional French galette des rois consists of layers of puff pastry with an almond filling and a small, potentially tooth-chipping favor hidden inside. Whoever wins it gets to be king or queen for a day. And suddenly, some of New York City’s best bakeries are king cake crazy, so we wanted to know: Which NYC galette takes the crown? To find out, we enlisted an expert panel (our co-workers) and put them through a highly scientific taste test. Each of our eighteen testers ranked the galettes out of 5, giving each cake a possible total of 90 points to be won. There were a lot of disparate opinions, but it was surprisingly easy to pick a clear winner. Check out our slideshow to see who is the king of kings.

The King of NYC’s Galette des Rois