It all started around 1882. Fransisca Fincent had been married three times, and widowed twice. She was the mother of 16 children, of which 6 were stillborn. These were hard times, when life was just a matter of survival.

Her first husband was called François De Fonseca, of Spanish noble descent and with whom she had 8 children.
 With her second husband, Felix Vandepitte from Aalter, she had 2 children. Louis De Vos was her third husband, and with him she had 5 more children.
Father De Vos was a miller, and next to the mill Fransisca kept an inn which served as waiting room for the farmers while their grain was being ground. The farmers paid the miller with two scoops of flour from each sack that was ground. The miller's family used this flour to bake bread and to raise cattle. So, one could always rely on bread with smoked ham, cottage cheese or an omelet at the inn.

Fransisca was called "Moeder Siska" -Mother Siska- by her children, and soon everyone began to call her by this name. One sunny summer's day Moeder Siska decided to treat herself to a trip to Amsterdam. She visited one of the museums there, and in one of the paintings she saw a waffle  with five small hearts and gave this drawing to her brother-in-law, who was a smith in De Pinte. The waffle iron was forged.
As she was fond of eating well (she weighed no less than 135 kg) she made a batter, that to this day constitutes the basis for the waffle's success. On every child's birthday waffles were baked. One day a notary from Antwerp visited Moeder Siska and tasted the delicious waffles. He immediately asked her to organize a birthday party for one of his children. This party was such a success that many more requests followed.

Before long Moeder Siska's became a meeting place for tourists from the Heist area. A horse-and-cart was recruited to bring along the visitors. Initially waffles were only baked to order, but from 1892 one could enjoy the speciality without first having to place an order.
Because of the ever-increasing onrush of clients, it  became necessary to place trestle-tables in the adjacent meadow. Moeder Siska also bought folding chairs from a bankrupt circus - which are still in use to this day. Her children's playground was expanded so her customers could use it.
Moeder Siska's sons did the baking and the heavy work, while her daughters helped in the inn. In winter, all the children went to the Walloon provinces of Belgium to improve their French and thus be better able to help the mainly French-speaking clientele.

Moeder Siska's waffle house turned out to be such a success that she advised her children to open other waffle businesses. In 1907, five of her children opened "Bij de kinderen Siska" ("Siska's children").
Her youngest daughter, Marie, also wanted to follow Siska's example when the first World War broke out. Siska passed away in 1918 and never witnessed the opening of the third business. "Bij de Dochter Siska" ("Siska's Daughter") was opened in 1919 and after a couple of years the name was changed to "Marie Siska".
In 1924 Moeder Siska's youngest son opened "Gustave Siska" and in 1936 one of her granddaughters, Germaine De Fonseca opened a fifth "Siska" in the town of St.-Idesbald.
These "Siska" continued to grow until after the second World war and contributed to the development of tourism in "het Zoute". However, unlike their mother, only a few of Siska's children married.
Marie Siska did have a son and a daughter. In 1949 her son, Urbain, took over the "Marie Siska". Her daughter took over the "Kinders Siska" from her aunts.

Eventually Moeder Siska' s home was sold and demolished. In its place came a residential area. Luckily the old mill was saved and converted into a country abode.
Gustave Siska became gravely ill and sold his business. The Siska in St.-Idesbald shared this fate.
In 1988 "Kinders Siska" was sold, as there were no successors in de family business either.
The name and buildings of these four Siskas were indeed sold, but not the secret of the batter!
As mentioned before, Urbain Dossche (Marie Siska's son) took over his mother's business in 1949.
He initiated its expansion, adding a restaurant and a mini-golf course which led to the name "Marie Siska" being acknowledged far and wide.
Paul Anka, Josephine Baker, Martine Caroll, Ava Gardner, Gilbert Bécaud, and The Platters paid several visits. King Leopold III was already a customer when he had his country house in the Zwin with Queen Astrid. After the war he used to come and eat a waffle with friends after a round of golf. They were seated in a separate room, and the table he used to sit at was referred to as the King's table by the staff, and it is still there to this day. Everyone used to come to Siska's, it used to be a "family paradise", but the years had not been kind to the building, and in 1967 the whole of Marie Siska with the exception of the waffle bakkery was demolished. It was rebuilt as a complex with 500 indoor  and 500 outdoors seats.

Obviously, running a business like Siska requires good health, and so, in 1987, the business was left to the fourth generation. Moeder Siska's great-grandson Stefan and his wife Nathalie took it upon them to keep up the tradition of the waffle.
A number of changes ennied: a hotel ...
A hotel has been added, with 8 luxurious rooms, the playground has been adapted to meet the latest safety standards, the kitchens have been modernized and expanded. Today Siska can bake 26 waffles in three minutes. So, there have been quite a few changes over the years. The only thing that remains exactly the same is the waffles baked by Moeder Siska. We are proud to be the only ones who still know and use her original recipe.
Meanwhile the fifth generation of Siska is at play in the Playground, let us hope that they will also continue this tasty tradition of "het Zoute".

The family's De Fonseca, De Vos, Dossche.

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