Galettes des Rois

Every year, just as everyone is getting over the excesses of Christmas and New Year, the bakers and pâtissiers of France assail the population with flat, shiny galettes des rois. Filled with frangipane, encased in rich puff pastry, it seems impossible anyone would want to tuck into them so soon after bûche de Noël and turkey with chestnuts. It is perhaps the ritual more than the cake that has people hooked, for the cutting and serving of the galette is turned into an elaborate scenario.

The first time I encountered it, I truly believed that it was a joke at my expense, unsuspecting foreigner that I was. The galette was cut into eleven pieces (one more than the number of guests) then I was sent under the table to call out everyone’s name and thus impartially decide the order in which everyone got their slice. The secrecy is necessary for the stakes are high. Inside each galette is a fève, a little charm. First served in Roman times, whoever came across it in his piece of cake was crowned king of the party. The tradition is still going strong, although galettes are now served at Epiphany and thejèpes have become little porcelain figurines, passionately collected by Jiibophiles.