THE PERFECT EMPANADA By Brian J. Lowney “I’m chasing the perfect empanada!” he emphatically says, as our conversation begins… Pablo Mastandrea is on a quest to find the perfect empanada. The Attleboro, Massachusetts resident and father of four, started his personal journey more than 20 years ago in Rochester, New York, where he attended graduate school, but he couldn’t find what he was so fervently seeking. “It’s become my passion,” begins Mastandrea, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. “For 20 years, I have been chasing the perfect empanada.” Mastandrea shares that during his culinary journey, which has taken him from South America to Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, where he’s occasionally enjoyed the fried or baked Latin American hand pies made with various delicious fillings. “They were very unique at the time,” Mastandrea continues, adding that while he enjoyed a lucrative corporate career in sales and marketing working for several Fortune 500 companies, he was always drawn to the kitchen, where he could create good food for his family and friends. His latest venture, “The Perfect Empanada,” combines his passion for cooking with his business acumen. “I’ve chosen the road less traveled…” he emphasizes. “I left a comfortable, corporate professional career to take a chance and create an innovative company driven by personal passion and a vision.” Working with the staff at Hope and Main in Warren, Mastandrea launched his new venture in March ’21, and began production and sales of his Artisanal Gourmet Empanadas eight months later. “Our empanadas have all the qualities of goodness. They are decadent and delicious, fun, shareable, portable, beautiful, and creative,” he tells. “Our empanadas are baked, not fried. I am a bit of a perfectionist and all about the presentation. In addition to being delicious, our product must be creative, fun, and memorable! Most empanadas are pretty tasty. We want our empanadas to be irresistibly delicious,
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Pablo Mastandrea & his daughter Sophia
