Sweet Sinning in Hungary - best cakemakers and their legends

Have you ever tried Hungarian desserts? Not sure? So probably you haven't because eating our sweets is more or less equal to the fall. A Somlói Galuska or a Gundel Palacsinta should definitely have an own tree in the garden of Eden.  Behind every sweet sinful taste there is a story of a great man or a legend.


Let's start with the most diabolic one: the Gundel Pancake in flames....




Karoly Gundel travelled the world and cooked and baked (and also wrote books). On the EXPO in New York, in 1939 his restaurant was the official caterer of the Hungarian pavilion which earned him this fame: "The Gundel restaurant guarantees a better publicity for Budapest than one ship full with tourist brochures" (New York Times)


Gundel's most famous invention is the Gundel palacsinta -  a pancake folded into a triangle, filled with nuts, raisins and sugared skin of the orange, topped with  hot chocolate sauce. This famous dessert has gone through some metamorphosis during its life, sometimes baked crispy, sometimes touched by rum but never was it on fire! Nowadays, however, just ask for a Gundel on fire in Gundel restaurant to impress your guests :)



Gerbaud or Kugler?
(you can find both in the emblem) Hungarikum (something uniquely Hungarian speciality) or a legend?

Have you ever wandered inside the Gerbeaud confectionery house in the Vörösmarty square? You might feel like stepping to another century and there is nothing to be surprised about this! The house was already in 1870 the center of town in every sense. The confectioner Henrik Kugler (coming from Sopron) was young and as the youth does its best: he was continuously innovating the repertoire of his chocolate cakes, biscuits and coffees. How sad it would be here in the cafes if Henrik had not introduced to Hungary the mignon, the cat tongue chocolate or the cherry-cognac-chocolate bonbon (konyakosmeggy)?
He did not have it easy, the public those time was not so "avantgarde" and open to new tastes - but they could not resist the temptation.

So why is Kugler"s confectionery called Gerbeaud? Kugler was too busy making cakes to get married, so he travelled the world searching for his heir. Luckily, he did not have to go too far and found Emil Gerbeaud in Paris. Emil came along with him to Budapest, fell in love with the city and stayed here for good.


Gerbeaud stunning facts:

Hundreds of cakes were invented by Kugler and/or Gerbeaud. Variations of mignon, kugler, Gerbeaud cake and Eszterházy or Dobos cake are just to mention a few.

More than 90 000 pieces of Dobos cakes are sold in Gerbeaud a year!

The cakes in the McCafé were invented by the chef-confectioner of Gerbeaud house .



http://www.gerbeaud.hu/

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http://www.gundel.hu/

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