We are a crepe eating nation. I have met nobody who isn’t fond of those beautiful paper thin pancakes. They can be sweet or salty, rolled up, layered or folded into quarters, filled with walnut, jam, curd cheese, nutella or cocoa – we actually love them all. But there is one, which aquired fame beyond the frontier. It’s the elegant Gundel crepes – the classic dessert of the legendary restaurateur Gundel dynasty.

Like all famous dishes, these crepes also have their own legend: a banquet following the premiere of a Márai play was held at the Gundel restaurant, and Lola Matzner, Sándor Márai’s wife gave her family crepe recipe to Károly Gundel to make it for this occasion. The crepes achieved success and Károly Gundel put them on the menu as Márai crepes. But after the writer and his wife had emigrated and become persona non grata, in the meanwhile nationalized restaurant the dessert was renamed after Gundel.

Gundel crepes are filled with rum-walnut filling, fried in butter and served hot with warm chocolate sauce on their tops. They are generally folded into quarters, but I prefer to roll them up. According to the original recipe crepes don’t have to be flambéed, because it would reduce the taste of rum. The recipe asks for finely chopped walnuts, but in order to make the filling a bit creamier, I grind half of the walnuts, the other half is chopped finely.