The company name, Oizeo5, means nothing. Like Haagen-Dazs for ice cream, it’s just a word that sounds good but has no meaning.
The name is pronounced “oy-zay-oh five.”
“We just made it up,” said Paige Nguyen, the spokesperson for the five-sister catering company that specializes in desserts and savories with an Asian flair.
Paige, Rachele, Tram and Thoa live together in West Jacksonville and work in the business.
The fifth, Nikki, is a college professor at the University of San Francisco where she teaches marketing. She provides financial guidance when needed.
Next year, the sisters will mark 25 years in the United States.
The sisters are natives of Saigon, Vietnam, but came to the U.S. as children just days before the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Their father was a member of the U.S. Merchant Marine and had arranged for the family to leave April 30. But in the darkness of April 24, the family was told it had a half-hour to reach the docks and board the boat.
It was just minutes before the nightly curfew would start and there was no time to gather belongings.
The girls, ranging in age from 7 to the early teens, made it to the boat with their parents and began a voyage that brought them to Jacksonville.
Lutheran Social Services had arranged for them to be one of 22 refugee families to relocate in Northeast Florida.
The Nguyen sisters graduated from Robert E. Lee High School and then earned college degrees. Nikki went to Harvard and Paige earned an engineering degree at the University of Miami.
The others graduated from the University of North Florida.
Rachele’s degree is in graphic design; Tram’s is health science; and Thoa’s is business.
They pursued careers in their respective fields, and Rachele was the first to venture out. She returned to Asia to see her home and travel the region.
There, she worked for caterers and opened a catering business in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, sister Tram decided that she also wanted to become a caterer. She asked for a job from Jacksonville caterer Liz Grenamyer.
Grenamyer said that without experience, Tram wasn’t a good fit.
Tram continued to ask until she was chosen for the team.
“I finally decided to give her a job. Anyone who would come back that many times deserves a chance,” Grenamyer said.
Tram worked for Grenamyer for more than 20 years.
The other sisters also worked in Grenamyer’s business by helping at parties and lending a hand in the kitchen on larger jobs.
Around 2016, the sisters decided to go out on their own.
“We had been talking about it for a long time. We were all getting older and if we were going to do this, we’d better do it before we get really old,” Paige said.
They began with savory dishes but needed more sweets.
Paige, who probably was the least experienced in the kitchen, was drafted as the baker. Baking is a precise, detailed cooking skill. Her engineering background suited her for the task.
“Besides, I always liked sweets,” Paige said.
They pooled their savings and began the business with $10,000. After licenses, insurance and product, it left little money to rent a kitchen.
In the beginning, they shared a corporate kitchen. When the lease expired, they needed to find another place.
Kim Wright, a friend from St. Matthew Catholic Church, is the owner of Kitchen Kettle Deli, a lunch spot on Lenox Avenue. The sisters asked to use it, but Wright was reluctant because a previous company created a cleanliness issue.
“They kept bugging me until I decided to give them a try,” said Wright, who also was impressed with their food and the baker’s precision. It worked out and the sisters continue to share space there.
“I tease Paige,” Wright said, “I ask her how every slice of apple in the apple pie is perfectly cut. She tells me that it’s her ‘zen.’”
The oizeo5.com site shows examples of their work.
Oizeo5 provides catering for groups of 25 up to 200 in Northeast Florida as far north as Fernandina Beach and south to Nocatee.
The small company has catered weddings, family functions, corporate events and holiday celebrations. The largest event has been a group of 150 for a corporate client.
Paige declined to share sales numbers, but said the business is growing.
The unmarried sisters are together constantly.
“At the end of the day, we are still sisters,” Paige said. “If there is ever a problem, we talk it out. We try to make it fun. This is a lot of work, but it is still fun.”