If you don\u2019t like Gundel pancakes because your memories are of a dessert with dry edges, soaked in a watery cocoa sauce and filled with a runny walnut (or dej\u00f3) cream, it\u2019s time to give this dessert, which is over a hundred years old, another chance. We asked Viktor Moldov\u00e1n, executive chef at the revamped Gundel Restaurant, to help us rekindle our enthusiasm for this dessert with its chequered history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It could well be the symbol of Hungarian confectionery: the Gundel pancakes<\/strong>. It is based on an easy-to-make type of dough; the pancake is set apart from the world of everyday sweets by such fine ingredients as silky-smooth chocolate and a rum-and-walnut filling. Over the past seventy years, the lustre of this turn-of-the-century dessert has faded, but what better task could there be for contemporary Hungarian confectionery than to restore these treasures to their rightful place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like most Hungarian desserts considered classics, the Gundel pancake also originated in the 20th century. Although it retains the name \u2018Gundel\u2019, a fitting tribute would be to call it the \u2018Lola pancake\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story is in fact linked to S\u00e1ndor M\u00e1rai\u2019s wife, Ilona Matzner, who is remembered in literary history simply as Lola. Gundel features in the story because the writer was celebrating the premiere of one of his plays at the restaurant in V\u00e1rosliget, during which Lola prepared the family favourite in the kitchen together with Gundel\u2019s pastry chef. The sharp-eyed restaurateur, K\u00e1roly Gundel, took a liking to the recipe and added it to the restaurant\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is easy to recognise the origins of this sweet treat, which was a favourite of the M\u00e1rais, who were steeped in Germanic culture. The Hungarian Gundel pancake was inspired by the German Schoko-Nuss-Palatschinke; when served with whipped cream \u2013 as it still is in many places today! \u2013 it does not follow the original Gundel recipe, but rather its Germanic predecessor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is clear if we take a look at the menus of Gundel Restaurant and numerous other outstanding Hungarian restaurants. We can sample countless reinterpretations of this iconic Hungarian dessert across the country, but at Gundel alone, the experience is quite different. According to the story, this sweet treat was created within the walls of the legendary restaurant, which is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, and has been made ever since by chefs and pastry chefs (and at home by families) across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gundel\u2019s objective for the 2020s is clear: they are not following the trend for unconventional, experimental, \u201eturn-it-inside-out\u201d creations. They have dusted off the old Gundel recipe under the motto that this exquisite dessert deserves to be made, at last, from high-quality ingredients and with meticulous care \u2013 without taking shortcuts or cutting corners in a way that shows disrespect to guests, or the use of imitation food products. This is how the \u2018Nemzeti 11\u2019 section of the menu came into being, offering legendary Hungarian dishes created within the Gundel tradition. It is almost unbelievable that every one of the eleven courses is a Gundel dish, including such deeply rooted Hungarian favourites as pal\u00f3c soup, \u00dajh\u00e1zy chicken soup, K\u00e1rp\u00e1ti pike-perch, Soml\u00f3i galuska, R\u00e1k\u00f3czi cottage cheese cake and, of course, Gundel pancakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nM\u00e1rai pancakes on Zsolnay porcelain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Does the Gundel pancake hold its own in the world of 21st-century desserts?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n