Red Hook Paletas Producer Launches Kickstarter Campaign

A local chef known for Mexican sweets has launched an online campaign to help rebuild her Brooklyn kitchen after it was hit by Hurricane Sandy.

La Newyorkina, founded by pastry chef Fany Gerson, has cultivated a devoted following in recent years, creating Mexican frozen treats and sweets sold at markets throughout the city. But when her Red Hook kitchen was flooded this fall, all of Gerson's equipment was destroyed. Now the cookbook author—and creator of Bed Stuy's highly addictive Dough donuts—has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help her rebuild.

"I lost everything inside, equipment and ingredients," says Gerson in her Kickstarter video. "It was incredibly overwhelming."

As incentives for donations, La Newyorkina is offering signed copies of her cookbooks Paletas and My Sweet Mexico, mixed bags of Mexican treats, and a gourmet Mexican dinner, among other options. The fundraising campaign will run through Feb. 19 and seeks to raise $20,000.

In the meantime, Gerson will "continue to create new flavors and train staff" at Dough, while selling a limited selection of paletas (Mexican ice pops) such as the pineapple-jalapeño, cajeta or hibiscus flavors "from the Big Gay Ice Cream Store in Manhattan and work on creating an online store," she told Patch.

But the longterm dream, one that existed long before the storm this fall, is to eventually have a La Newyorkina brick and mortar shop. "[I'm] getting paperwork together to apply for a city loan and hope to find a permanent space," she says.

To help Gerson rebuild the La Newyorkina kitchen and move closer to making her dream a reality, visit her Kickstarter campaign here.