For Kent Land, it really is all about the dough.
It’s the foundation of every pizza he makes, the element he obsessed over when he first began experimenting in his Redondo Beach kitchen, and ultimately, the inspiration behind the name of the business he and his family have built: Landoughs.
However, the dough is only one of the ingredients in Land’s recipe for success. There’s family, community, creativity, and, perhaps most importantly, a renewed sense of confidence and pride in what he creates.
Landoughs began taking shape following the pandemic, when Land—who had spent much of his career in marketing and advertising—found himself increasingly drawn to pizza. “Pizza was always one of my things,” he said. For years, he had been making flatbreads at home. During the pandemic, he began experimenting with sourdough. Eventually, a friend pointed out what seemed obvious in hindsight: “You're such a pizza guy. Why don't you make pizza?”
The idea took hold when Land watched Naples-born chef Daniele Uditi appear as the first guest on Jennifer Garner’s Pretend Cooking Show, where he demonstrated how to make traditional Neapolitan pizza dough using just four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt.
Land made the dough. Then he made it again. The result stopped him in his tracks. “That pizza was amazing,” he said. “And it was light and airy, and it made me think of Italy. It made me think of Naples.”
Soon, Land was making pizza for friends and neighbors. Their reaction was immediate: They wanted more.
That led to his first large-scale event—a teacher appreciation gathering at Birney Elementary School, where Land was asked to make approximately 40 pizzas. Until then, he had never made more than about 10 doughs at a time. “I think I could do this and maybe we'll book some more parties,” he said.
Not long afterward, Landoughs found an opportunity at the Redondo Beach Farmers’ Market. Land called Nancy Jones, the market manager, and was told the market had just lost a large food vendor. “I think we could get you in,” she told him. Land’s response was, “I’m not ready.” He asked for a couple of months to get his permits and health requirements in order. By February 2023, Landoughs was ready to make its market debut.
What began as an experiment has grown into a thriving operation. Today, Landoughs regularly serves two weekly farmers’ markets—at Veterans Park and in North Redondo—and caters private parties, corporate events, weddings, and other gatherings. Its signature offering is a 10-inch Neapolitan-style pizza, with options ranging from the traditional cheese pizza “Say Cheese” to “The Fun Guy,” topped with mushrooms and a creamy white garlic sauce, and the sweet-and-spicy “Hawaiian Punch,” made with pineapple, spicy pepperoni, and jalapeños.
The business has also introduced “Handough,” a pizza folded into a half-moon shape, partially baked, then filled with sauce, cheese, and toppings before being finished in the oven. Folded and wrapped like a sandwich, it gives customers a handheld way to enjoy Landoughs pizza for about half the price of a full pie.
At the farmers’ markets, Landoughs typically sells out of both. “We basically come home empty-handed or we've got maybe one or two [left],” Land said. For Land, one of the most meaningful measures of success is how many customers return. “In our sales that we can record and look at, we average over 50% return customers and often over 60%,” he said. “I know that's a key part of success in the long run… Having people come back for it over and over again.”
That success has also given Land something he didn’t always have in his previous career: confidence in the product itself. Marketing, he explained, can be subjective. With pizza, the equation feels different. “You don't have to worry is the client going to be happy next month or the next month?” he said. With Landoughs, he knows what he is putting on the table. “I feel great about our pizza, and I'm excited to have everybody try it,” he said. “I know I'm going to make a good pizza today.”
Landoughs has also allowed him to draw on everything he enjoyed about his career in marketing and advertising—branding, creativity, and storytelling—while creating something tangible. “I get to do the marketing. I get to do the branding. I get to name the company. I get to do my weekly marketing content,” he said.
Even better, he gets to do it alongside his family. His wife, Merlan, teaches marketing at Redondo Union High School and lends a hand with Landoughs, while their daughter, Lorelai, now 17, is also involved, helping make dough and taking on greater responsibility within the business.
For Land, watching his daughter become part of the business has added another layer of meaning to what he has built. “There’s a pride and a feeling that goes along with that, of showing her a path that was successful and rewarding, personally,” he said.
The business has also provided the family with additional income and, even more importantly, greater flexibility. “It’s been nice,” he said.
The community has become another important ingredient. Customers return week after week, offer feedback, and have even helped inspire new products. Landoughs’ playful personality comes through in everything from its pizza names to the way the team interacts with customers.
That doesn’t mean building a food business is easy. Land has learned to find satisfaction in the less glamorous parts of the job, from cleaning dough boxes late at night to preparing for another event the following morning. “I find efficiency and all those little things, they can either be annoying or you can turn them around and they can sort of be pleasant gauges of your success,” he said.
What began as a simple love of making pizza has become something much bigger for Land: a creative outlet, a family endeavor, and a business he genuinely feels proud of.
“I tell everybody every day, I have a great time,” Land said. “I am creating… Every time we make pizzas, I say there's a creative process going on. There's an art to every pizza, and every time it comes out of the oven, there's a bit of amazement like, ‘Whoa. Look at what we've made. It's beautiful.’”
There are no secret ingredients, he says. Just a willingness to put in the time and care. “The secret is, do you love doing it?” Land said. “Do you love spending the time making dough in your kitchen? I do. I find that interesting.”
That philosophy is baked into the business’s name, too. Landoughs came from the simplest realization: Land + dough. “There was a big debate around whether it was Landough or Landoughs but in the end, we just said, well, Landoughs gives it that feeling that it's ours. It's all ours.”
And that is what makes Landoughs special. The dough may be at its center, but the business has been built from all the right ingredients: family, community, creativity, and the confidence to believe in what he has created.
“It’s all about the dough,” he said.
For Kent Land, it turns out, it’s also about everything that dough has made possible.
“The secret is, do you love doing it?”