The Joy of… Joy Bakery: Danish Bread and Pastries in Vršovice

Lo and behold, there is a newly-opened bakery in Vršovice!

Owned by expats Peter and Liudmila, Joy Bakery focuses on artisanal, hand-crafted bread and pastry, all baked and sold
daily by Liudmila.

Originally from Russia, Liudmila came to the Czech Republic sixteen years ago. In Prague, she met Peter, originally from Denmark.

The pair moved to Denmark, where Liudmila started her professional baking journey, studying the craft of baking for over three years.

She then worked in France, honing her skills by baking for a Michelin 3-Star restaurant “Le Petit Nice Passedat.”

“I learned a lot from my experience working in that restaurant. I learned to stay calm and patient and always give it my best, even when I couldn’t stand it anymore,” remembers Liudmila. “But I also realized that I am definitely more of a person for sourdough, bread, and pastry, not for cakes and that bigger stuff.”

Peter and Liudmila returned to Prague some five years ago, and Liudmila first worked as a baker in several different businesses that opened small, but soon switched to factory production and lost the quality of the product.

“Yeah, they stopped caring about what they were doing because they only wanted the money. I didn’t like it, because, even if you get the best ingredients and the greatest professionals, the product will not taste good if you don’t really love what you do,” she explains.

Liudmila then decided to open her own bakery – a place where the goal is to serve the customer with products of the highest quality, tasty, hand-crafted, and made with joy. And thus, Joy Bakery was born. And while it only opened in April 2023, it has been making a name for itself among the locals.

“People keep coming back! They are really happy that we have a lot of choices. And they can feel the passion. For me, it’s important that people who come here are happy with the product,” she says. To that, Peter adds that nothing they serve is subquality.

Indeed, their products are made from the locally-sourced ingredients. Joy Bakery gets its flour from a mill just outside of Prague. And it is Liudmila’s passion that turns those ingredients into a variety of products: classic bread and baguettes, croissants and cookies, special bread with seeds and cumin, etc.

She frequently experiments with new products, such as different “cakes of the week” and adds Danish and French influences into her baking. She also plans on adjusting her menu according to each season.

Peter explains the difference between Liudmila’s products and the products available in the supermarket chains: “Liudmila only uses four ingredients, while the supermarket products use up to sixteen. They need to because their bread will dry out in a day, so they have to use all kinds of crap to make it last longer.” Contrarily, Liudmila’s bread stays fresh for days.

Joy Bakery also serves quality coffee. As for the vegan options, there are some, while gluten- free options are not available.

“Unfortunately, I can’t do anything gluten-free because I use flour in everything. You need a special space to make gluten-free products because there can’t be any cross-contamination of ingredients. We don’t have space for that. A lot of bakeries say they do gluten-free when they actually don’t and this is not right,” explains Liudmila.

Peter adds that they would much rather say that they cannot do gluten-free than lie to people and say they can.

Joy Bakery has also become the main bread supplier for a local restaurant. And while there are currently no plans for expanding the business into a bakery chain, Liudmila and Peter are not opposed to the idea in the future, as long as they find the right people.

“If we can find passionate bakers who really enjoy their craft, then we could think about expanding. For now, I don’t really envision anything other than the joy of having this place,” explains Peter. “We want the people to be able to enjoy high-quality products for prices they can afford.”

“I’m just happy that people keep coming back and buying stuff. Thank you very much! Don’t go anywhere,” laughs Liudmila.

You can find Joy Bakery in Petrohradska 1478/41, Prague 10. Their opening hours are 8:00-18-00, from Monday to Friday.

For more information, you can visit their website. You can also find Joy Bakery on Wolt.