The Argentinian-born founder of St. Paul, Minnesota-based Quebracho Empanadas serves up a smattering of meal and snack ideas.

Today, Belén is the founder of Quebracho Empanadas, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based Argentinian empanada brand. When she first founded the company in 2018, she sold empanadas, other savory pies, and charcuterie at local farmers’ markets and pop-up shops. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she quickly pivoted her business to focus on selling wholesale, frozen empanadas through grocery stores and co-ops—a step that anyone in the consumer packaged goods industry will tell you is far from easy, pandemic or not. But for Belén, working the food industry runs in her blood.

In Astoria, a historically Greek neighborhood of Queens where baklava are as common as bagels, Cafe Boulis stands out. Panagiotis “Pek” Peikidis bought the cafe in 2016, but he’s quick to say it really belongs to his mother, Lemona Peikidou. Every morning, Peikidou walks the ten blocks from her home to Cafe Boulis at 4:30. She pulls spanakopita, tiropita (phyllo dough stuffed with cheese), and other pastries prepared the previous day from the fridge and starts her first bake.