2024-05-24 11:48:33
Folks can discover the best-rated ice cream parlor within the Czech Republic all the best way to the border with Germany, within the village of Šumava, which is in any other case solely identified for its unattractive market and on line casino. Gelateria Strážný was opened by former development designer Stanislav Žák and celebrates its best success with the flavour of povidloň paying homage to a typical South Bohemian dessert. Crema Edmundo with Greek yogurt and caramelized almonds takes prospects to the highest of their well-being.
Though the city of Strážný is positioned in a tourist-attractive space of the Šumava Nationwide Park, it doesn’t precisely have a status as a gorgeous foothill resort. Folks typically affiliate it primarily with a on line casino and a Vietnamese market – the same old gear of many border cities. Nonetheless, there may be one attraction that makes the journey right here price it. The perfect-rated confectionery within the Czech Republic is positioned right here, not less than based on customers of the Mapy.cz software. It is referred to as Gelateria Strážný and, because the title suggests, it affords trustworthy ice cream based on the Italian custom.
While you enter an not easily seen home with the signal Koloníál u Žáka, you anticipate nation meals. Inside, he finds an ice cream counter with two rows of mysterious silver lids, underneath which a number of ingeniously tuned flavors are hidden day-after-day. One of many hits, which mustn’t ever be lacking amongst them, is the pom pom. Its title and elements check with a typical Šumava dessert constituted of baked dough, jam and cream.
Like different ice cream makers, he began with ready-made mixes. “However ultimately I finished having fun with being a slave to overseas recipes written on baggage,” says Žák. | Picture: Jakub Plíhal
“Scalded dough wouldn’t be good in ice cream. I solely put mascarpone and marmalade in it, which I purchase from Austria. In accordance with the usual, the Czech one should include a reasonably excessive proportion of sugar, and the ice cream would then be too candy,” says 58-year-old Stanislav Žák. In accordance with him, most prospects uncover the enterprise due to suggestions, there are only a few random passers-by who would go to right here on their means from a visit. “For instance, Tonda from Havířov comes right here saying that his pals instructed him to cease by this ice cream parlor throughout his trip within the Šumava area and have a drink. So I mustn’t let him down,” smiles the communicative ice cream man.
Nor can he afford to neglect the vanilla, pistachio, caramel, chocolate cherries and liqueur tip. In order that individuals who arrive in vehicles, which is almost all, can indulge within the latter ice cream, Žák replaces the eggnog with non-alcoholic cream, to which items of chocolate are added. “I can play with different flavors as I like. Considered one of them, for instance, I name Ardour. It consists of caramel cream with walnuts caramelized on pure sugar and butter. One other one is known as Touha and reminds you of cheesecake. The bottom is cream cheese, which I then rub with nougat to stability the saltiness of Lučina with one thing candy,” explains Žák.
Folks come not just for ice cream, but additionally for tales
He’s typically requested how he comes up with extra refined flavors. “As soon as, dad and mom got here right here with a little bit boy and a little bit woman. After all, the youngsters had been inquisitive about how I got here up with all these ice lotions. So I in contrast it to the fairy story Ratatouille. I instructed them that I’ve a mouse underneath my hat and he advises me which elements so as to add and to keep away from. The boy checked out me inquisitively and objected that I haven’t got a hat on. I instructed him that I solely put on one once I’m making ice cream. However he nonetheless did not prefer it, as a result of he seen that I did not have any hair, and he questioned what he was pulling me for,” laughs Žák.
The film Ratatouille on a US postage stamp. | Picture: Shutterstock
He believes that individuals preferred the ice cream store in Strážné due to related tales. “Additionally they come right here to talk. An necessary a part of the entire expertise can be the nice ambiance. It’s this that makes a enterprise a enterprise,” highlights Žák. It’s mentioned that he has a fascinating narrative ready for nearly each ice cream. “As soon as I had the concept of caramelizing almonds and mixing their great style with some ice cream. However I did not select an excellent mixture, it did not go collectively in any respect. Fortuitously, the mouse saved me then, he instructed me to strive pouring almonds into Greek yogurt. In any case, the Greeks do one thing related they do with walnuts,” recollects Žák.
Coincidentally, his good friend occurred to be strolling by, so he made her the primary guinea pig to check the brand new taste on. “She’s a lawyer who can smash every little thing for me, and if she compliments me by likelihood, then it have to be one thing. Nonetheless, I took a danger and let her style the ice cream. She did not must say something in any respect, I simply noticed her blissful expression and I used to be instantly clear. I used to be pondering the way to categorical her feeling. In the long run, I named the ice cream in honor of Sir Edmund Hillary, who reached the highest with Tenzing Norgay. You’ll attain the highest after tasting this ice cream,” smiles Žák.
“Folks come right here to talk. An necessary a part of the entire expertise can be a nice ambiance. It’s this that makes a enterprise a enterprise,” highlights Žák. | Picture: Jakub Plíhal
The primary experiments weren’t edible
On the similar time, his first makes an attempt at ice cream ended ingloriously. “Once I was a little bit boy, I used to go to my grandmother in Chvalšin in Krumlovsk in the course of the holidays. As a result of she had chickens, I’d secretly go to the hen home to gather eggs after which attempt to make ice cream out of them. However I could not eat it,” he admits. After unsuccessful childhood experiments, he determined that he would in all probability not grow to be an ice cream maker, so he turned a development designer.
“I used to be working in a design workplace in Liberec when the revolution got here and town was holding exhibition markets. At the moment, my father labored for a cooperative in Slušovice, which ran stands there and wanted somebody to promote sausages and wine. He satisfied me to go there to part-time job, and that is how my journey to gastronomy started,” says Žák.
The subsequent step was when his dad and mom opened a buffet with a pastry store in South Bohemia within the early Nineties. “However they did not do very effectively, and since I had already moved right here to Strážné from Liberec, I made a decision to take over the enterprise. I mentioned to myself that I would really like ice cream there, and I knew pals from Liberec who delivered to gastro institutions ice cream machines, so we agreed that they’d get me the gear. Within the Czech Republic on the time, solely ice cream machines had been obtainable, so our retailer was a franchise of the German Spar, and since its administration preferred our ice cream, they supplied me if I needed to begin it in an even bigger one,” Žák returns to the previous.
Though the city of Strážný is positioned in a tourist-attractive space of the Šumava Nationwide Park, it doesn’t precisely have a status as a gorgeous foothill resort. | Picture: Jakub Plíhal
For a number of years, he ran a manufacturing facility that provided ice cream to all of the branches of the retail chain, and he had seven dozen workers underneath him. “Nonetheless, the stress to make the ice cream as low-cost as doable and its high quality as little as doable progressively elevated. That is why I lastly offered the manufacturing facility and for the previous ten years I have been making the ice cream myself. In order that it pleases me and the shoppers,” explains Žák. At this time, solely his spouse and two daughters assist him at Gelateria Strážný. His working day begins at 5 within the morning and ends at eight within the night.
Like different ice cream makers, he began with pre-made mixes shipped in from Italy. “Nonetheless, I ultimately stopped having fun with being a slave to different individuals’s recipes written on baggage, so I began creating my very own. Later, I additionally went on an ice cream course on the Italian coaching heart Gelateneo. We had been led there by a grasp named Giacomo, and naturally everybody tried to be taught the recipes from him. However he at all times instructed us that he can solely educate us the way to work with uncooked supplies or technological procedures and that we’ve to develop our personal tastes, as a result of each nation has them in a different way. It was in Italy that I found my mouse underneath the hat, to whom I owe all of the concepts,” concludes Žák .