Proof is in the pastry

Michael Getoff was enjoying semi-retirement as a personal trainer when he got word of an opportunity.

An investor in gluten-free food company GeeFree wanted Getoff, a Sarasota County resident who founded a furniture company in a previous corporate life, to be the company's chief operating officer.

“When they asked me to come on board, I said, 'Send me some samples,'” Getoff says. The company mailed him a box of products, and when he got it, he made a fruit pie out of GeeFree puff pastry. “I ate the whole pie and started working the next morning,” he says.