Hollywood Film Producer Becomes Goat Milk Ice Cream Entrepreneur

by Mike Kravinsky

Plenty of product reviews do a summary of their topic at the end, with positive or negative comments throughout. However; my review is not about the product, but rather about the person who gave up a big time career to make the product.

So here's my review summary of Laloo's Strawberry Darling, which I just purchased from a Whole Foods store. Damn, that's good! Kind of sherberty, but much richer. When you first taste it, it sort of has a little smokey flavor. That may come from the balsamic vinegar that's used. Yes, really. Or it could be the goat's milk. Laloo's six ice cream flavors come from goat's rather than cow's milk. It is very rich, yet lower in calories. Why has this not been done before?

You have to taste it to understand the rich deliciousness of this stuff; but for now, let's talk about the manufacturer, Laura Howard-Gayeton, and her second act. 

After graduating from Miami University with a degree in design and marketing, Laura worked in Hollywood for ten years as a producer of TV commercials and music videos. Around the ten year mark, she moved into independent films.  Once there, she realized the film production industry just wasn't what she had hoped it would be. In search of something different, Laura got into yoga. For a year, she trained and got her yoga certification. One of her teachers suggested she change her diet to an Ayurvedic diet. The whole process gave her a new view on food.

Around that same time, she went to Tuscany for several months to produce an independent film. There, she met her future husband, Douglas Gayeton, who was working on a PBS documentary about the slow food movement. While in Italy, Laura started making her own ice cream using goat's milk, since her diet didn't allow traditional ice cream. She thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a product that's sort of a heathy good for your body product that's also gourmet?"

Laura comes from a farming family. Her grandparents were farmers in West Virginia and she spent summers there. Although Laura never worked on the farm, she enjoyed being there.

In 2004, Laura and Douglas returned to the United States; and with the encouragement of Douglas, they started looking around Sonoma County, California for a farm to buy or rent. They found a small farm; and with the guidance of the other goat farmers in the area, started the business. Inspired by the flavors of the gelato she tasted while in Italy, Laura created unusual flavors like my new favorite Strawberry Darling or Black Mission Fig. "A big part of what we're doing is we're on a mission to make people happy and heathy through this product and at the same time doing really good things for the planet," says Laura. It took her a couple of years to develop the customer base for her ice cream. She remembers, "I went from making a lot of money to making very very little money."

Unlike others who search for their second act, Laura knew what she wanted to do. For her, there wasn't a lot of searching. "Working in advertising, you sort of become a trend spotter, and I knew instinctually that there were a lot of lactose intolerant people out there. There was no other goat milk ice cream on the market."

The demand for Laloo's Ice Cream, Yogurts and Ice Cream Sandwiches has grown, now selling on the East coast and in a total of 1400 stores nationwide. To cover demand, they put together a co-op of several family farms and a plant in Wisconsin to cover east coast sales. Why the name Laloo's? It's Laura's nickname.

Although Laura would never go back to Hollywood, she does occasionally help film projects. Currently, she's working on a film about — what else? — food.  But her primary focus is Laloo's. "When I left Hollywood, it was kind of an easier transition to come to a bucolic, pastoral setting than it was to go to Hollywood in the first place." 

Her advice to budding entrepreneurs: "I think there's this attitude of I want to make it and I want to get rich. And I think if the getting rich thing comes first it gets in the way of doing something really good." She also notes, "Get out of your immediate surroundings. Travel someplace new and meet new people. A big mistake that a lot of people make when starting something new is to do it all by phone and internet and I don't think it works that way."