We roasted our first kürtőskalács in 2002 as part of Lehel Kürtősház in Odorheiu Secuiesc. In 2003, we decided to tell the world about chimney cakes – which is still our mission.
Our first and still operating shop was opened in March 2009 under the name of Vitéz Kürtős Kuckó (Vitéz Kürtős Cottage) in the Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden, where we still keep roasting our delicious chimney cakes. Our shop is set up in front of the Lion Court, and is open in all seasons.
In November 2011, we were the first in Hungary to launch home delivery of our kürtőskalács. In 2012 and 2013, we designed and created a number of products associated with kürtőskalács baking, such as the cookery book Otthoni Ízek (Taste of Home), Vitéz Kürtős Baking Spits, Vitéz Kürtős Baking Rods, the Bake’n’Roll chimney cake baking set, as well as products in the category “I Love Kürtőskalács”. Also in 2013, we dreamt up and successfully organised the first Chimney Cake Festival in Budapest, which has been held every year since on a growing scale and enjoyed huge popularity.
We are particularly proud that we keep developing our kürtőskalács: we constantly seek (and find!) the best solutions and best-quality raw materials to ensure that our chimney cakes are as delicious as possible. Brown sugar mixed with cinnamon has become a particularly liked flavour of our customers as a result of our innovation, and we also take credit for developing chimney cake variants coated in raspberries and strawberries, which we have worked out experimentally, devising a unique method using lyophilised (freeze-dried) fruits. We were the first to create dessert specialties made with chimney cakes baked over traditional charcoal, such as Kürtős Pastry Cream, Kürtős Bearing and Kürtős Ice Cream. Our desserts enjoy huge popularity, and the list of our delicacies keeps growing.
In 2014, we were the first to launch, and have remained the only ones to make gluten-free, lactose-free, egg-free and dairy-free kürtőskalács after extensive experimenting. We are proud to have listed the kürtőskalács as a Hungarikum in 2015, in cooperation with the Principal Order of Hungarian Bakers.
In 2016, we targeted a new segment: this is when we started to sell our own Beechwood Charcoal from Harghita under our own brand name all over Hungary. We are proud to report that today most renowned restaurants use our product, choice-quality Beechwood Charcoal from Harghita from Lupeni, the same as we exclusively use to roast our chimney cakes.
In 2017, our kürtőskalács and our Kürtőskalács Fesztivál (Kürtőskalács Festival) won a Hungarian Quality Product Award.
In 2018, we opened the first kürtőskalács pastry shop in the country in Állatkerti körút, and named it “Édes Mackó” (“Sweet Bear”). In the same year, our Bake’n’Roll mini kürtőskalács grill for household use won a Value & Quality Award.
In the spring of 2019, we organised the spring version of our Kürtőskalács Festival under the name Kürtőskalács Vigalom (Kürtőskalács Merrymaking) in the new play park of Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden called Holnemvolt Vár (Once-Upon-a-Time Castle). From the spring of 2019 on, we have exclusively used environmentally friendly, plastic-free, biodegradable packaging materials made from corn to wrap our chimney cakes, with the intention to reduce our ecological footprint. Our to-go-cups, boxes and straws are all free of plastic, our napkins are made of recycled paper. We do not sell refreshments and mineral waters in plastic bottles, and we buy products and raw materials in plastic-free packaging, wherever possible. We provide our employees with refillable mineral water dispensers, and we proceed towards paperless operation and use recycled paper, if any, at our headquarters, besides keeping to selective waste collection.
