Taryn Varricchio: Pastry dough mixed until soft,
patted down, and rolled an eighth-inch thick.
Cut into perfect 2-inch squares
that fly through the air into piping hot oil.
Fried until puffy and golden brown.
Finished off with a sweet blanket of powdered sugar.
It's the expert way that these pastries are cut and fried
that makes Café du Monde's beignets
a legend in New Orleans.
People compare beignets to doughnuts, funnel cake,
and other sugar-topped fried pastries.
But those who've been to Café du Monde
know them as a thing all their own.
Customer: It's our, like, decadence.
It's who we are.
I mean, it's everything about it.
You come here,
it...
I can't describe it.
I'm just looking at it because it's like heaven in a bag.
Taryn: Beignets start out as a simple pastry dough
at Café du Monde,
where the bakers are meticulous
in the way they mix each batch.
Curtis Richardson: Mix it till you get all the lumps out,
till it get smooth.
It's about 10 minutes at most.
Taryn: As for what's inside that mixture?
Curtis: I can't tell you. That's a secret. [laughs]
Taryn: Based on the ingredient list
from Café du Monde's own beignet mix,
the dough is made with wheat and barley flours,
buttermilk, salt, and sugar.
Once it's fully combined,
only touch can tell whether it's ready.
Curtis: I check to make sure
it's just the right feeling for it to throw.
I don't want it too soft; I want it just right.
I don't want it too hard.
See, I have to feel it.
If I make it too stiff, beignets will start to shrink up.
Taryn: Then Curtis puts the dough
through a rolling machine.
Curtis: I'm rolling it down
so I can run it through the cutter.
Brush the excess flour off,
get it ready to go into the grease.
Producer: Do you ever burn yourself doing that?
Curtis: Oh, plenty of times.
Still have the marks on my arm.
Taryn: Café du Monde fries beignets
in cottonseed oil, because...
Curtis: It's like a peanut oil.
The grease doesn't burn that fast.
You cook it at a high temperature.
Taryn: You'll see Curtis shake the squares
continuously as the pastries cook.
Curtis: I'm separating them so they won't stick together,
so all of them come out done.
Taryn: In five minutes or less,
the beignets are puffy and golden brown.
Curtis: This point, wait for the waiters to come in
and bag them up and take them out to the window to serve.
Taryn: Shovels of powdered sugar
empty into the bags immediately
after the beignets leave the fryer.
That's when the sugar easily clings to the surface
and when the pastries taste their best.
Customer: Listen.
You have to get them hot. Like, extremely hot.
Because it's like, do you see that?
Like, it's so airy and light.
I gotta take another bite.
It's so good!
Customer: Better than a doughnut.
Way better than a doughnut.
It's just soft and chewy and excellent.
And we always wear black
so that we can have powdered sugar all over us
and everybody knows where we've been.
Curtis: So, most customers like a lot of sugar.
They like a lot.
Producer: Do they come back asking for more?
Curtis: Yes, they do all the time.
All the time.
Taryn: Café du Monde has been open
in the French Quarter for almost 160 years,
all the while serving the same two items on the menu.
Customer: With some black coffee,
it's just, like, the perfect combination.
Customer: Yeah. It's a perfect mixture of
tart and sweetness that it kind of just,
it totally combines with each other.
Taryn: And for decades, food publications,
famous figures, and customers from all over the world
have praised this sweet fried dough.
Jay Roman: There are a few things that you think
of New Orleans immediately.
The river, the cathedral, a Pat O'Brien's Hurricane maybe,
a Café du Monde beignet.
This is what you come to New Orleans for.
Customer: First stop when we get to New Orleans.
Customer: This is on the list of where we gotta go.
Customer: Even if you don't like beignets,
you kind of have to try it,
because it's just part of the New Orleans tradition
and history, culture.