Vietnamese food scientist finds perfect formula in Nam Gourmet

Westminster, CA (NV)- There’s a science behind good food and no one knows this better than Dianne Trinh. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science, and a résumé that boasts of working with big-name companies such as Kellogg’s and The Coca-Cola Co., Trinh knows exactly what it takes to develop a recipe, test it and bring it to market.

And that’s exactly what she did with her new line of healthy, Vietnamese foods called Nam Gourmet.



“I want to bring Vietnamese cuisine to the next generation, but I want it to be healthy,” she said.

“Because in the end, your health is all that matters.”

That’s why everything that goes into the Nam Gourmet brand has no preservatives, artificial coloring, or MSG. In the future, Trinh plans to introduce products that do not have irradiated seasonings.

Thus far, Trinh has launched two products: a BBQ marinade she developed seven years ago, and a peanut dipping sauce she has recently perfected. At Kellogg’s and at Odwalla, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola, Trinh, 52, specialized in creating protein and nutrition bars. She said it took a team of food scientists months to research and develop a new recipe, a fact most people don’t consider when they see products on the shelves at grocery stores.



Trinh said because the products need to be made on a mass scale, scientists can’t just go to the their local market and pick up some sugar and salt to create a recipe. They must source each ingredient, find multiple manufacturers to evaluate the taste of each, test it in different proportions, record it and see how it stands up to different methods of cooking. One variation in any of those steps can affect the final taste and texture greatly.

This detailed but labor-intensive process taught Trinh how to be precise, a trait she said is lacking in Vietnamese cooking since so many of the recipes include “a little bit of this” and a “splash” of that.

Trinh said she is willing to invest in her sauces, because she believes she has a good product. After all, she received the best kind of confirmation: her colleagues. During a BBQ competition at Kellogg’s Global Snack Department’s off-site meeting in 2010, she debuted her sauce and won. It was a sauce she had developed years ago for church events. She said taking home the bragging rights among certified food scientists told her she had a good product worth a closer look.



So when the time was right, she contacted a manufacturer in Newport Beach, Calif., to produce the sauces for her and launched Nam Gourmet last year. Her BBQ and peanut dipping sauces both have FDA approval, and the manufacturer is an FDA-approved facility, she said. This is especially important for Trinh, with her background in food science. Her sauce can be found on the shelves of several retail stores in Orange County, Calif.

Today she no longer works for big corporations, but is a consultant and entrepreneur. She said her target audience is the next generation of young professionals who are too busy to cook, but health-conscious enough to pick up a ready-made sauce that would allow them to eat at home with little preparation.

“Everyone can make rolls. It’s the sauces that are hard and time consuming,” she said. “By creating a sauce that is delicious and healthy, and ready to go, people can eat Vietnamese cuisine without spending hours perfecting the sauce.”

How she got here

Following the Vietnam War, Trinh tried to escape to America three times but failed. Her brother was able to make it to the United States first and sponsored their family. It took him 10 years to get the paperwork in order, and Trinh came to the U.S. In 1991 at age 28.

While she was living in Saigon, she worked as a skin-care specialist, a job she was able to get through family connections. When she resettled in Orange County, she spent a year getting her cosmetology license, thinking she would continue doing a job she was familiar with.



However, her brother gave her one piece of advice that has not only stayed with her to this day, it also changed the course of her life.

He told her, “Invest in education for a short time, and you will earn it for life.”

That simple sentence stayed with her as she learned English and earned her cosmetology license from the Garden Grove Adult/Vocational Education program. It stayed with her as she moved to Michigan to go to school full-time and as she earned her bachelor’s degree in food sciences. It stayed with her still, as she debated whether to pursue her master’s degree — all while being a mother to two young children.

“For example, in my field, if you only got your bachelor’s degree, your earning power would be in the $60k to $80k range. But by investing two more years, you could earn in the $100k range each year for the rest of your life. If you do the math, it makes a lot of sense, and I want to inspire the next generation to know that investing in education is worth it. And that you are never too old.”


Her sauces retail for $4.49 and can be found in specialty food stores such as Givral Bakery and T&K Wholesale Foods. She said she hopes to expand into additional retailers and add products to the line. And although her target audience is the younger generation, she says she was surprised to find that there was a market for her sauces with baby boomers, as well. One couple told her they were “too old” to go through the trouble of making sauces from scratch, and Nam Gourmet’s was “authentic and worth the price for convenience.”

For more information, or for online ordering, visit http://www.namgourmet.com/.

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