About Us

Lester Chastain is a nationally recognized donut‑industry consultant, trainer, and business strategist whose four‑decade journey began in the heart of a small family donut shop. At just 15 years old, he learned the craft firsthand from his uncle, starting with sweeping floors and watching donut holes fry before graduating into the highly specialized, often secretive world of professional donut making. Trained using old‑world recipes passed down by veteran bakers, Lester gained rare, hands‑on experience in some of the most respected donut shops in the San Francisco Bay Area.

By age 24, he became one of the youngest owners of a multi‑location donut business, purchasing and operating Donut World before successfully selling both locations. Although his entrepreneurial path later expanded into other industries, his passion for donuts never faded. He continued refining specialized donut lines, funding shops, and developing proven systems that blend exceptional product quality with modern business operations.

Today, Lester is the founder of Donut Business Consultation, where he helps independent donut shop owners and franchise operators launch, scale, and dominate their local markets. His end‑to‑end approach covers everything from business modeling and kitchen design to equipment sourcing, menu development, and operational scaling. His methods emphasize efficiency, profitability, and long‑term business valuation—ensuring that each shop he supports is built for sustainable success.

Lester’s production expertise spans scratch yeast donuts, cake donuts, French crullers, copper‑kettle fillings, gourmet glazes, and high‑volume specialty lines. His advanced donut training programs have helped entrepreneurs across the country master the craft while building systems that keep quality consistent and operations streamlined.

For the past 15 years, Lester has dedicated his career to elevating donut businesses nationwide. Combining decades of production mastery with marketing, branding, and technology, he has become one of the most trusted experts in the industry. His latest venture, Lovit Donuts, a franchise he co‑founded, represents the culmination of his experience—built on integrity, craftsmanship, and donuts made the way they were meant to be.

• Our objective: to provide quality information and valuable donut training about the doughnut business so your only option isn’t just to open a doughnut franchise and use the company’s baking methods. Instead, we demonstrate expert doughnut making techniques for both yeast and cake doughnuts. Our primary objective is to help people enter the donut business by offering donut business consultation and donut training with attention to taking the local donut market by storm with our custom created donut lines and products.

Donuts are Americana at their best. Who doesn’t love a warm, fresh, donut? Donuts have been good to me and they can be good to you, too.

Our hobbies include the internet, billiards and my love of camping on my gold claim, dredging for gold 3-4 weeks out of the year and fishing. Metal detecting for Relics is fun too “there is so much history for the finding.”

I work hard and I play hard. The people I know that are successful exemplify the characteristics of the donut maker, they show up everyday, they go in early, they stay late and they are productive while they are there.

My suggestion is to adopt the characteristics of the donut maker: show up every day, go in early, stay late and be productive while you are there. Next time one of your acquaintances starts complaining about their jobs or careers do what I do. Look them in the eye and tell them, “Take control, be a donut maker.”