Vili Milisits

Vilmos "Vili" Milisits (8 September 1948 – 26 March 2021) was an Australian pastry chef and businessman of Hungarian origin, noted for the businesses Vili's Pies and Vili's Café (also known as the "Café de Vili's") in Adelaide, South Australia.

Early life and career The Milisits family escaped the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and migrated to Adelaide, South Australia. Their first home was a modest place on Carrington Street in the city. Vili left school aged 14 to work at Kazzy's Cake Shop in Burnside, run by fellow countryman Kazzy Ujvari. After completing his apprenticeship he ventured to open his own Continental cake shop using rented equipment and employing his fiancée, Rosemary and his sister, as he could not secure a bank loan. (His sister later opened her own patisserie, "Olga's Cakes", in Leigh Street, Adelaide). Around 1965 he purchased a home at 14 Manchester Street, Mile End, which doubled as a bakery.

In 1978 Milisits expanded his range to include Australian-style pies and pasties, but with pastry and spices more to his own taste. Business steadily grew and he owned much of the property along Manchester Street, has 200 employees in Adelaide, and has expanded interstate. A State Memorial Service was held at the Adelaide Festival Centre on 30 April 2021 and the Australian National Flag was flown at half-mast throughout South Australia on that day.