Margarita Womack, owner of the frozen empanadas company MasPanadas, looks over staffers inspecting empanadas to ensure quality control. Imperfect empanadas such as those with an uneven shape are removed and donated.ROCKVILLE, MD – Margarita Womack never imagined she would be making empanadas for a living. She dreamed of spending her life in a lab making life-changing discoveries, she says. Colombian-born Womack is a PhD scientist-turned entrepreneur.
Then comes the area where the unbleached wheat dough is made in an industrial-size mixer, followed by an empanada making machine where women feed it with dough on one side and chicken filling on the other. At the other end the fully formed empanadas come out, hundreds of them. A staff member moves them to a fryer where they are dipped in hot oil and quickly removed, the process takes about 15 seconds.And though empanadas are a year-round delicacy for many in the U.S.
“They started making the empanada dough out of corn or yuca. Once Africans crossed over with plantains, they made dough with that. And that’s how different forms of dough developed throughout Latin America,” says Gutierrez. All the different combinations of filling, doughs, and cooking methods are specific to the culture and diet of each region of the Americas.“In Cordoba, Argentina, they have ground beef and potato empanadas and are always coated with sugar,” says Gutierrez.
It hasn’t been easy, Womack says. “Creating an efficient, industrial production line while maintaining the quality took learning, some tweaking, some upgrades.”Financing has been challenging, she says. She used credit cards, loans, like SBA’s, U.S. Small Business Administration loans. She and her husband have used personal savings, and her family in Colombia has pitched in. But she has also attracted investors, she says.
Employees wearing green Bouffant caps indicate that they are new to the plant. “It shows they are in training and they get more help,” Womack says that employees wearing a red Bouffant are pod leaders. Those visual cues help everyone because they know who needs help or where to get it. Womack says there is no shame in seeking it, it’s one of the company's values.
She’s not only grateful for the promotions and the trust Womack has placed in her, she says she also feels supported.