Camellia Beans New Orleans: Vince Hayward on 100 Years of Louisiana's Red Beans

Red beans and rice looks simple on the plate, but the story behind the beans is anything but. We drove to New Orleans to sit down with Vince Hayward of L.H. Hayward Company, the family business behind Camellia Beans, and we learned how a “little bean company” becomes a Louisiana institution for more than a century without ever getting careless about quality.

We talk about the Hayward Standard, the unofficial name farmers gave Camellia’s pickiness, and why that strict sorting and sourcing shows up in the pot as creamier texture, better consistency, and fewer defects to pick through. Vince also explains how modern cooking habits changed the game: pressure cookers can mute spices, convenience matters more than ever, and a strong recipe library plus smart seasoning blends can help people cook beans confidently even without someone’s grandma coaching them through it.

The conversation goes deeper than food. Vince shares what it took to keep people paid and operations moving after Hurricane Katrina when banks were closed and cash was king, plus how COVID flipped their business overnight from restaurant demand to a home cooking boom that introduced Camellia to new customers across the country. We also get into community and culture, from supporting the Krewe of Red Beans and Beanlandia to the Caribbean and Haitian influences that help explain why New Orleans has such a powerful bean tradition in the first place.

If you care about Louisiana food culture, family-owned businesses, and what “quality” really means when it’s your name on the bag, you’ll want this one. Subscribe, share this with a fellow bean loyalist, and leave a review with the dish that tastes most like home to you.

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00:00 Vince Hayward, L.H. Hayward Company, and 103 years of Camellia

02:01 French Market roots and the New Orleans melting pot

05:17 The Hayward Standard

09:18 Why red beans taste better at home

13:28 The Nabisco connection

14:51 Counting beans with his grandfather

16:07 A pot of beans is a commitment

17:12 Seasoning blends and the pressure cooker

20:09 Camellia is a Louisiana thing

23:02 Red beans on Monday

24:02 Vince's favorite bean

25:19 The Krewe of Red Beans

27:47 Never selling to a corporation

28:09 Will his kids carry it on

29:55 Gordon Hayward drops out of school to run the company

35:03 Rick, Ken, and six years at UL

38:17 The hardest part of a family business

40:01 Hurricane Katrina

43:23 Second Harvest, Beanlandia, and Devin De Wulf

46:16 Taking the helm: it wasn't a promotion

47:32 Facebook ads and thousands of recipes

49:36 Three facilities in New Orleans

50:13 The farmers, and the toughest job in the country

51:35 Beans dry on the plant

52:52 Where red beans grow, and the Caribbean roots of red beans

55:50 The Cajuns brought white beans from Canada

57:09 COVID: restaurants close, home cooking booms

59:50 The 100-year documentary

1:00:48 How the business gets passed down

1:02:19 How many bags a day? Truckloads