A pet project that smells of freshly baked bread

What was the road like, that led to the opening of the Baker’s Bistro? How did the idea of your own bakery occur to you?

The road that lead us to opening the Derce was long: I met my husband 30 years ago, but the idea of a bakery comes from my family background. I grew up with a large extended family with more than twenty cousins. My grandparents were farmers and this was the atmosphere in which we spent our childhood. Three years ago, I attended a course with Bea Kovács (‘Búzalelke pékség’ (Búzalelke Bakery)) in Kisapáti, and this was when I became a fanatic: I baked every day and I was obsessed. After my close family, I started baking for my friends, and began teaching them, and this is how the workshops started. I have done several courses, joined a number of professional communities where I met and learned from many bakers. In the meantime, more and more people around me became interested in bread made with sourdough. This is what inspired me to think about opening a sourdough bakery in Veszprém. I started baking bread to order twice a week while still working and caring for my family in order to see if there was demand for that kind of bread and whether people are willing to pay for the quality I intended to produce. The results and feedback were positive, and so I opened my shop. This is not a business born out of necessity, rather my pet project in which the opening was preceded by a year-long period of planning and many Excel sheets because I had to stay true to the economist within me.

My grandfather was a baker, and during this time of preparation my mother and one of my aunts found his bakery school book from the 1930s or 1940s, which gave me the push I needed because it made me realise that what I do is a legacy that I need to honour. Furthermore, I am also dedicated to healthy eating, to which sourdough bread is essential, but this fact alone is not enough, my true motivation to launch my business was love.

First of all, I believe in good quality ingredients: in the neighbourhood, we are the only ones to use flour from Garat Malom, which you can also buy in our shop. We are continuously striving to grow and develop, and we sell only the best. We also sell gourmet coffee because I wanted to present the best quality coffee possible. Just like tizen1, we are also on a coffee mission in Veszprém. We want our guests try and taste quality coffee and immerse themselves in coffee culture. At present, we only have one kind of coffee, but in the future we would like to sell a larger selection, and to introduce different filter coffees into our range.

What are your customer like so far?

Our customers are particularly grateful, we have met many wonderful people, and so this place has given me so much not just physically, but also emotionally. Veszprém showed me its best face which is a humane and inclusive community. Special treatment is important for us, and our purpose is to make our customers feel comfortable, and I think our customers appreciate this attitude.

What role do you play in the local community?

We participate at the local ‘Kenyérlelke Fesztivál’ (Soul of Bread Festival) and also joined the Old Town market initiative. We also identify with the approach of the project Veszprém-Balaton 2023 Cultural Capital of Europe, and we are continuously searching for ways to cooperate. We are located in Veszprém so this is where we try to contribute to the community: we are always happy if people I taught to bake bread pop in for flour.

What are your plans for the future? What exciting projects are you working on? 

We would like to set up a specialised workshop, hold training courses with guest bakers, and we are also planning to introduce new products.