15/06/2026
In the years since closing Czech Please, I’ve wondered if I made a mistake by refusing to franchise the brand. I also considered selling my intellectual property, but that never felt right, either; to be honest, it gave me more ick than the thought of franchising.
If not for the awful, terrible, horrible, beautiful, wonderful, necessary things that have happened in the last few years I’d have never figured out why, but it seems so obvious now: I was never able to sell my brand to the highest bidder because it was never meant to be turned over to someone else. Czech Please is meant to be my legacy. It is meant to fund my early retirement. It it meant to inspire others to try their hand at baking. It is meant to come full circle.
My recipes were always meant to be passed on…and because I don’t have any children, I can think of NO ONE better to inherit them than YOU.
So, instead of “Czech Mate” or some other iteration of Czech Please that would inevitably put me back in the psych ward with burnout, I’m going to do something I never imagined I’d do - I’m going to let go of the secrets I’ve kept in a bright red binder since 2015.
I’m going to compile the bakery’s recipes into a cookbook. The breads, the fruit fillings, the grab & go favorites…you’ll be able to make it all, in your home kitchen, any time you like.
Whether it will be an e-book or a softcover book will depend entirely upon interest. I’ll launch pre-orders when the final revision is done, but for now you can give me an idea by commenting below which Czech Please recipe you are most looking forward to making. 👇
