How New York’s Doughnut Queen Earned Her Crown.
"We started out with a French fry fryer!"
The Deligram shines a spotlight on the many incredible food artisans of New York and elsewhere. In our last feature, we spoke with Brooklyn Queen Honey’s Margot Dorn, a beekeeper who makes honey in a community garden in Bed-Stuy. For this week’s feature, we heard from Mexican chef Fany Gerson, founder of the summery treat spot, La Newyorkina, and Fan Fan Doughnuts, her second venture in the sweet, pillowy treats. Here, Gerson shares how being an immigrant shaped her culinary path and opens up about her mission to, as she says, share “the sweetness of Mexico.”
The Product: A delicious assortment of Mexico-inspired sweets–paletas, ice creams, and, of course, doughnuts.
The Deli Pick: The Luna Limón doughnut, with a fresh lemon-lime glaze and candied lemon.
How To Buy: Order directly for delivery or pick up from lanewyorkina.com or fan-fandoughnuts.com.
Price: Doughnuts range from $3.50-$5.15.
I always thought I was going to go into the arts because I was creative. I always loved to cook but I didn't think that I could have a career in that. My mother had like a very small repertoire, which was very good, and there was a cook that came from time to time to my house, but it wasn't like I had somebody directly that I was always cooking with. The flavors that I grew up with were Mexican, one hundred percent. Like at most Mexican homes, lunch is the biggest meal of the day. When my sister and I would come back from school, it would be like, “what's for lunch today?” There were tortillas, always beans, always salsa, lots of fruits. My grandparents from my father's side emigrated from Russia to Mexico, so we celebrated the Jewish holidays, but we were not religious in any way. It was pretty traditional — matzo ball soup and Mexican gefilte fish (it's way better than the regular one).
[After attending cooking school in Mexico and The Culinary Institute of America in New York], I just really wanted to work in good restaurants. But, I had the added hurdle of needing to find places that not only would hire me without experience, a little after culinary school, but that they would have to sponsor my visa. Eventually, I got my green card but it took a long time. I worked at Rosa Mexicano, La Cote Basque, and Eleven Madison Park, and I started traveling in 2009 doing research for my first cookbook, My Sweet Mexico. I said, “When I come back, I want to do my own thing.” It was because I wanted creative freedom, it wasn't like I had this entrepreneurship business side. I can only speak for myself, but when you're sponsored by a visa it makes you feel like you belong to someone, like you're trapped. I just wanted to feel free to create. It wasn't so much the actual food at first or those skills that I learned. I just wanted to do something that was very authentic to me, something that was meaningful.
After spending that year doing research, I really wanted to continue sharing the sweetness of Mexico. That’s the idea behind La Newyorkina [the ice pop, ice cream and sweets company I founded in 2010]. I know it sounds corny, but that's how I felt. I just wanted to share this beautiful part of my culture, and show it in a way that was rooted in pride. I started out just testing the idea — were New Yorkers ready for the flavors that I longed for and missed? I had two part time jobs–working in the Essex Hotel’s pastry department and running the breakfast program at El Quinto Pino–and then I rented out a pastry kitchen. My friend Hannah Goldberg would go in around seven and I would go in after my second shift at like midnight, just to test out the idea.
Luckily, people liked paletas and the flavors of Mexico. By the end of the summer, I had quit both jobs. Then, I had a friend who was a former boss who called me up and he’s like, “what are you going to do now that it's not popsicle season anymore? How do you feel about opening a doughnut shop?” Here's a French guy and a Mexican girl talking about opening like, the quintessential American treat. I had made doughnuts in a few of my jobs, but that wasn't something that I was an expert in by any means. I think that's a very Mexican thing, you know, to be like, "Okay, try it out.” We started out with a French fry fryer, which is very small for a doughnut shop and we opened the doors, then it took off.
As an immigrant, I love the incredible landscape that's around you culturally in New York. I'm inspired by different people and their cultures from around the world, that you get to see, taste, and enjoy. I use the doughnuts as a canvas to explore that since I haven't had a chance to travel as much as I'd like. I got to travel through that and opened [Fan Fan Doughnuts] in the middle of the pandemic. I created our first chocolate doughnut festival and the first year’s theme was “Around the World” because I was really homesick. I imagined a lot of people were, too, or longing to travel. We did about 19 different chocolate-based flavors. The names of the doughnuts were countries from around the world, so people would come and they'd be like, I'll have a Spain, an Iran, an Israel. For La Newyorkina, the pandemic was very different and we closed our shop, which sucked. Everything was about keeping the lights on and luckily, we were able to pivot, and we did savory Mexican homestyle meals to deliver to people's homes.
In terms of growth, we’re building on what we already have with La Newyorkina. We just started selling in Texas! And, we’re planning our chocolate doughnut festival for next year. I also sent out my latest book proposal, so I’m just crossing my fingers that we get interest in it.
Business wise, my husband and I are working on our first thing together–it’s part of this new concept that we have. We can’t really talk about it, but it's coming up next year and it's going to be Mexican. We're very excited! This new concept that we're doing is especially meaningful, because there’s been so much that we've overcome. Being an entrepreneur and having a business in New York is very difficult, especially opening something in the middle of a pandemic. As an immigrant, I had to figure out a lot of things the moment I stepped foot here. I've been here for a very long time, and opening this new concept is sort of putting everything I’ve learned together. It’s a big realization for us.
Story by Chanel Parks.
Photos by Teddy Wolff for The Deligram.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.