35th street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is a desolate stretch of narrow cobblestone, enclosed with towering, seemingly empty, factories. A great place for a photo shoot:

And, to cook.

We were on a mission: 700 empanadas in nine hours, for the ICE Party on June 28.

Up a freight elevator and down a long hallway lined with shelves full of sugar, parchment paper, peanut butter, and onions, is Kitchen 3A. We pried open the makeshift plywood door, and found ourselves in a large industrial kitchen smelling deliciously like cinnamon and warmth. Apparently, we’d surprised Alex of Granola Lab in the midst of a post-granola-bake clean up. She was gracious enough to package her amazing product in the hallway, and we were left with a kitchen-full of equipment we only half knew how to use, and no idea where to start.

(Clara was particularly excited about the people-sized mixers. Think of the alfajores this could turn out!)

We’d have been lost had it not been for Allison, of tasty tasty Robicelli’s cupcakes, who took a break from what we can only imagine is an insanely hectic cupcake-making schedule to show us around and, importantly, identify the candy stoves (on which we later cooked not candy, alas, but, ahem, carne).

So, orientated, we got to work, chopping:

mixing:

and folding:

Empanadas ready for the diesel oven!

And freshly baked!

700 empanadas is a lot of full sheet-fulls…

¡En fin! A long day. Un millón de gracias to Pablo and Ashley, without whom we would have never, ever gotten even remotely close to finishing in time.

Quite possibly the worst photo ever…but: success!

And thanks to La Newyorkina for rewarding our long shift with refreshing, perfectly sweet paletas in raspberry lime, cucumber mint and horchata. Seriously rico!