Stories & recipes

The sweet secrets of the Zauner house

Father and son: Josef and Philipp Zauner.(Bild: © 2023 wolfgang stadler photografie & art paper)

In keeping with the Salzkammergut's year as Capital of Culture, a new baking book provides delicious insights into Ischl's most famous confectionery.

Each recipe brings "its creators, the confectioners, to life". Each one is a "whimsical testimony to a carefully balanced equilibrium of constancy and renewal". This is how affectionately the recently deceased Alfred Komarek wrote in his homage to the Zauner spa confectionery.

Salt may have laid the foundation for Ischl's rise, but the Zauner has been bringing sweetness to the spa town with its sugary temptations for almost 200 years.

In keeping with the Salzkammergut's year as Capital of Culture, the Zauner confectionery, which is known far beyond its borders, now also reveals its sweetest secrets. In the beautifully designed booklet "Der süße Zauner" (The Sweet Zauner), Alfred Komarek and others review the history of the establishment - starting with the confectioner Johann Zauner, who was once brought to Ischl by the emperor's personal physician - and the pleasures of the summer resort.

As a delicious highlight, Josef Zauner and his son Philipp open the family cookbook and reveal 21 recipes for classics of the house, such as Schratt-Gugelhupf, Zaunerkipferl, Sisi-Parfait, Kaiserschnitten, Schwarzbeernocken and much more.