The story of Prague's famous Myšák pastry shop: From family business to nationalisation
Myšák: Pastry shops on both banks of the Vltava River
The founder of the pastry shop, František Myšák, was born in Přeborovice in the Strakonice region to a farmer’s family, the second of nine children. In 1884, at the age of fourteen, he travelled to Prague to begin an apprenticeship. He trained at Mr. Janda’s pastry shop on Vodičkova Street, where he remained for twenty years. In 1904, he married Anežka Holoubková, the daughter of a small-town brewer. That same year, they took over Janda’s pastry shop.
“They were self-made people who never forgot their humble origins, and over time, they managed to build an excellent, modern business. It was more of a family- and student-oriented pastry shop and café, with no late-night hours, closing at 8 p.m.,” recalls their son Karel Myšák in his memoirs.
The pastry shop was originally located on the site of today’s ABC Theatre arcade, in a building known as “V Jámě.” In 1911, the Myšáks bought the house directly across the street on Vodičkova Street. The entire business moved there, consisting of a front sales room, a café area, and a small back preparation room with a stove. From there, stairs led down to the workshop. The pastry shop’s design was created by Josef Rosipal, a leading Prague representative of geometric modernism.
In 1922, František Myšák had the building expanded by three stories. A custom-made Expressionist sales counter was installed in the centre of the pastry shop, and the first floor housed a café, connected to the pastry shop by a marble staircase. The renovation of the building was carried out by architect Josef Čapek, and the interiors were redesigned by architect Piesche.
Orange cookies and caramel cream
The pastry shop was a family business. The Myšáks had three sons: Karel, František, and Antonín. Their father, a pastry chef, oversaw the quality of production, while their mother handled the organisation of the business. František and Antonín both trained in the trade, and later their wives, uncle, aunt, nieces, and nephew also worked at the pastry shop.
Among the shop's original recipes are orange cookies and caramel cream. Typical desserts on the menu included “ledovky,” “indiánky,” “debošky,” “trdlovec,” and shaped fruits. These so-called “ice cream moulds” were very popular, especially for weddings or celebrations; they were ice creams of various flavours, turned out of tin moulds shaped like flowers or various figurines. Myšák also sold so-called “theatre candies” in straw bags so that those snacking during performances wouldn’t disturb others with the rustling sounds.
Myšák’s sons often recall the origins of the Machar cake, the name of which was coined in 1919. Among the regular guests at the shop was the well-known poet and novelist Josef Svatopluk Machar, who fell in love with the Parisian cake with chocolate cream they served. One day, he had the pastry chef, Václav Hoření, summoned from the kitchen to meet him. Hoření was delighted by the praise, and as a great admirer of Machar, he asked the poet if he could name the cake after him. Since then, name has remained.
“Masaryk loved apricots.”
A whole host of famous personalities frequented Myšák — writers such as Guth-Jarkovský, musicians including Ema Destinnová, artists, athletes, and actors. Myšák supplied desserts to both of the first Czechoslovak presidents. “Masaryk loved apricots. For his 80th birthday, we literally stuffed the cake full of them. We placed figures representing the four seasons on the three-tiered cake and decorated the sides with orchids. A marzipan scroll bearing the inscription ‘Lex Masaryk’ lay across the cake,” recalled František Myšák Jr. “To this day, however, I regret that Masaryk didn’t get to taste even a single bite of it — the cake was displayed at the Castle behind a glass case with the other gifts, so it soon became completely inedible.”
“I feel it’s important to emphasise that all our products were always made exclusively from high-quality ingredients. Margarine was never allowed to cross the threshold of the workshop. During the war, of course, we had nothing but substitutes. My father was utterly miserable about it. He used to say that it was chemistry, not confectionery,” his son recalls. During the First Republic, the pastry chefs at Myšák baked everything from scratch, even preserving fruits for winter. The only thing they bought was chocolate.
Staff a century ago
The Myšáks took good care of their employees. “The staff at the shop changed very little — workers usually stayed with us until they became independent, and saleswomen until they got married,” says Myšák. All employees received staff meals — the communal meal was presided over every day by Myšák Sr. or one of his brothers, and the food was the same for bosses and subordinates alike. The company even maintained its staff during the war. On Christmas Eve, the whole family would have dinner together with the unmarried staff members, so there were sometimes as many as 25 people at the table. “It sounds almost unbelievable to me now, but I remember a time when people used to sing while they worked in the pastry shop,” says Karel Myšák.
František Myšák Sr. was completely opposed to advertising. He believed that good products speak for themselves. He also received offers quite often to open another branch, but he was against it. He didn’t like the idea of having to depend on outsiders, and he wanted to keep the business small enough to manage it on his own, with only the help of his family.
Gradually, his son František took over the business, putting into practice extensive confectionery experience from across Europe. František Myšák Sr. died in 1941. At the end of the war, the pastry shop was officially closed, but the biggest blow came after February 1948, when the business was nationalised. František Myšák Jr. remained there for some time as an employee, but his presence eventually became unwelcome. Fortunately, Myšák continued to work in the field and went on to achieve one success after another at international pastry competitions.
František Myšák Jr.
Among the most prominent Czech pastry chefs is Myšák’s son and successor, František Myšák Jr. He practically grew up in the pastry shop, learning the craft “at home,” but under strict supervision — he had to master all the tasks and try out every position.
Immediately after completing his apprenticeship, he left for internships abroad, in Warsaw, Geneva, Paris, Nice, and Berlin. Upon his return, he gradually took over management of the shop. He had to complete additional training not only as a pastry chef but also as a waiter and cook, since running a pastry shop required a license for these trades as well. At Myšák, he sought to implement the modern confectionery methods he had learned abroad, developed new recipes, and studied professional literature and magazines.
In the summer of 1941, Myšák Sr. died after a sudden illness, and František definitively took over the business. During World War II, the situation was dire — pastry chefs couldn't access basic baking ingredients, and by the end of the war, Myšák was officially forced to close for a year. The most difficult period, however, came with the events of February 1948: “The end of private enterprise is looming, and the pressure is intense,” Myšák noted in his memoirs, which were found among his personal effects. The regime did not look kindly upon successful business owners, and in 1949, František Myšák was sent to a forced-labour camp in Jáchymov.
Nationalisation was supposed to apply to businesses with more than fifty employees. Myšák had only twenty, but his success was so great that his business was nationalised anyway in 1950. Myšák remained at the pastry shop as an employee, until nine years later, the newly appointed company director fired him, and he was reassigned to bagging flour. Fortunately, the neighbouring company Tatran (his former competitor) hired him as a pastry chef, allowing František Myšák Jr. to at least continue working in his field.
Despite the adverse times, he achieved one international success after another. In 1958, his marzipan creations were featured at the World’s Fair in Brussels. He created a basket of marzipan mushrooms, indistinguishable from real mushrooms picked somewhere in the forest. In 1971, the International Gastronomic Festival was held in Torquay, England, and František Myšák — even though he was already of retirement age — once again won a gold medal there for his marzipan creations.
“A professional must put their heart and soul into their work. On New Year’s Eve 1958, there was so much snow in Prague that one of our drivers overturned a truck carrying 150 ice cream moulds. We hired eight taxis to make sure our customers got their orders. We lost money on that, but it would have been worse to lose their trust.”
Fortunately, the pastry shop’s reputation survived even the era of one-party rule. František Myšák, the son of the company’s founder, died in 1992 at the age of 85.
