Szandra Szabó left Hungary 5 years ago and is already a proud owner of a confectionery that is doing rather well. The 32-year-old woman has made the American Dream come true, all thanks to the Hungarian chimney cake.
As delmagyar.hu reported, the term “chimney cake” (kürtőskalács in Hungarian) now sounds familiar to all Californian residents thanks to Szandra Szabó, Hungarian entrepreneur who set up her confectionery right next to Disneyland. She ended up being so successful that currently, she is working on building up a franchise.
“I came to visit my uncle” – she said. “After that visit I went back to Hungary but when I returned not much thereafter I decided to stay”.
“Originally, I had different plans regarding my stay here in the US, but in the end, this idea seemed to be the best one. My favourite dessert has always been chimney cake, and because that speciality has been basically unknown here, I thought it might be a successful endeavour to start to sell them”.
The place, called House of Chimney Cakes, started from humble beginnings. The first steps were quite tricky, but with the help of a chef friend, it all worked out well. Szandra used her grandmother’s recipe as the basis which was tweaked and modified to suit the “American taste”. The chimney cake itself serves as a cone in which they put wafer and chocolate.
There is a total of 13 different types of chimney cake sold at the House of Chimney Cakes: the crowd favourite being oreo-flavoured.
Although chimney cake has seen a rise in popularity in its home country as well, Szandra insists that she would not be as successful in Hungary: what she does is unique and special in the US.
“There are others who want to replicate our success, but nobody does it quite our way” – stated the entrepreneur from Szeged. Her next shop is going to be located in London, as part of her franchise-building ambitions.
This is not the first time America has been introduced to Hungarian food: you can see our other articles here and here.