Shakotis, favors and mazagran: why were Rosalini sweets in Lutsk so delicious?

Marzipan, halva, cookies, chocolate, coffee and lots of candy - all this is the most delicious microworld of the pre-war Lutsk confectionery.

For nearly 30 years, pastry chef Rosalini has spoiled residents of the city with his products. And not stuck together! Every luchanin knew that not one Sunday would pass without visiting his pastry shop.

This place was so popular that the echoes of the past remind of themselves today. Memories in the press, recommendations of local residents, mentions in guidebooks. There are even those who would like to continue the tradition of Cesare Rosalini.

His pastry shop appeared in Lutsk in 1912. But perhaps it happened even earlier. Until 1912, the street on which candy was located was called Highway. In the middle of the 19th century, the Kyiv-Brest highway, which covered the central city arteries, ran through Lutsk. It was later renamed.

Whether a pastry shop worked during World War I is unknown. But after it, real glory came to the pastry chef. Interestingly, candy Rosalini did not require huge premises. It was small, Cesare needed only a few rooms so that he and his staff could work the confectionery miracles.

Practically everything that was sold here was produced here. With the exception of very popular sweets of famous brands. Very often Rosalini made sweets to order. Often it happened just for the holidays. In these cases, the pastry chef published ads to the Lucians to order sweets in advance.

What sweets did Cesaro Rosalini indulge in the inhabitants of Lutsk?

Shakotis - cake with egg dough, baked on fire. Characteristic of Lithuanian cuisine. More like a hedgehog, which has become on paws.

Favorite - deep-fried sweet dough to a state of fragility. At the end it is sprinkled with powder.

Mazagran is a cold coffee drink, diluted three quarters with ice water. Sometimes a small amount of alcohol, syrup was added.

Mazurki - shortbread with fruit and nut filling in the form of thin flat cakes.

Fondant is a dessert with a hard shell and a fluid core. It could be a cupcake, a biscuit with chocolate inside. Nowadays, chocolate fondant is often served with a scoop of ice cream.

“On the way back, we visited one of the many pastry shops on Jagiellonska Street. For example, to Rosalini, where dad bought us very tasty ice cream, or cream (depending on the season), and with him - besides cakes, the best halvah in the world, the taste of which I still feel...", - told about Rosalini confectionery.