Meet Chloe & Eliza Mozer | Chefs, Small Business Owners, Artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chloe & Eliza Mozer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chloe & Eliza, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
First off, for those who don’t know us yet: we are sisters, business partners and roommates (thanks to our therapists for getting us to this point, haha).

Because of our two year age gap, by the time we began our careers in food, we were already living on other sides of the world. The idea for our business, oooey studios, was sparked when we reunited after nearly a decade. During our time apart, our paths ran parallel in the culinary world, but each of us took a different approach…

Chloe began apprenticing with a chef in Chicago at 16-years-old and never looked back. She cooked her way through restaurants in Chicago and California while earning her bachelor’s in Environmental Science and English at Pitzer College, then moved on to Copenhagen and Montana before reaching her highest role: Chef de Cuisine at the Michelin-starred Phenakite in Los Angeles (by Chef/owner Minh Phan).

Meanwhile, Eliza pursued a degree in photography and sculpture at Bard College, working in restaurants while studying. After graduating, she moved to Berlin, where she expanded her work into food styling, recipe development, gastronomy consulting, and cake artistry—gaining widespread recognition, with features in Vogue Italia and Bon Appétit Magazine.

When Eliza relocated to LA in early 2023, we were hired to cook an upscale dinner party for a family friend’s birthday. Suddenly, everything clicked. We saw the power of our complementary skills and felt the joy of cooking together—free from the constraints of a restaurant-defined ethos. That moment led us to take the leap, leave our jobs, and launch our own events company: oooey studios.

What should our readers know about your business?
We like to say that oooey is an expression of two Chicagoans celebrating California’s all-season bounty. With every dish we create, our ethos is: bright, lush, mesmerizing like the rose geranium sprouting from the sidewalk cracks, peppery nasturtiums spreading across ocean hillsides, bright pink-orange-yellow pops of citrus in January trees. We feel so in awe of this landscape on a daily basis, so our food is like a ‘thank you’ to LA for having us, a nod to all the chefs and creatives who taught us, and of course, to our family and the creativity they instilled in us.

This love for Los Angeles drives our entire business. Every menu we write begins with a review of what is in season in our community, and grows from there. We begin the brainstorm by taking a walk around our neighborhood, finding inspiration in the edible plants around us. We grow herbs, citrus and flowers in our garden that we weave into our menus as much as we can.

In terms of challenges… Creativity is our driving force, but the business side of things can definitely be intimidating. Since starting oooey studios, one of the most important lessons that we have learned is that it is okay to ask for help. We want to be independent and do everything ourselves, but sometimes, that is just not feasible, and it is okay! We have learned to set aside money for financial advisors, reach out to creative and experienced friends for design and branding help, and collaborate with agencies and other chefs to expand our network and job pool. We have even learned between the two of us that dividing work by our strengths is often much more effective than trying to both do everything: Eliza, in addition to her chef work, has special skills in photography, retouching, pastry arts and front of house; Chloe has extra kitchen management, touring and events, budgeting and fine dining experience. Collaboration is so important for helping any business thrive.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Such a good question! For context, we live in Mount Washington/Highland park area of Los Angeles, so our answer will revolve around the East Side. A necessary oooey adventure for any friend visiting, is a foraging neighborhood walk. We love to show out-of-towner’s our love for LA through tasting ie. picking fruit/edible plants off branches that extend over property lines into the sidewalk, and telling them everything we know about the plant while we taste. Our favorite examples are nasturtium, pink pepper, calamansi, loquats, and gem marigolds.

For a morning outing, we would take friends to Kumquat for some funky natural processed cold brew. If they were hungry, we would swing by Amara, owned by a friend of ours, Paola Guasp, for breakfast burritos, or some of the gluten free and vegan pastries that Eliza developed recipes for. For a casual afternoon bite, we would take them to Villa’s Tacos for their blue corn tortillas and the best hibiscus pickled onions, or Tropicana Market for green smoothies and snacks.

On Thursday, we would head to the South Pasadena Farmer’s market to explore the seasonal produce, and swing by Mama Musubi for some onigiri. For a more upscale, celebratory dinner, we would take friends to Tsubaki or Ototo in Echo Park, two sibling restaurants by partners Courtney Kaplan (sommelier, specializing in sake) and Charles Namba (very talented LA Chef), whom Chloe has collaborated with in the past during her time at Phenakite.

In warm weather, we would hit up the pool at Occidental College for an Everybody Swims pool party with friends, then maybe walk up to Deb’s park to see the turtle pond. We would walk over to Vinovore, a woman-owned wine shop (where we are doing a pop up with Mouthfeel Events for Regarding Her’s Women’s History Month on March 29!) to get an orange wine recommendation from one of their amazing female winemakers. We would drink the wine on our patio and watch the sunset 🙂

In the evening, we might go out to one of Public Assembly’s community theatre productions, or Goldline to listen to some vinyl. After a long week of running around and eating out, we would spend our last few nights cooking for friends, or ordering our favorite spicy oxtail silken tofu stew from Yuk Dae Jang in Alhambra. – There are so many more amazing spots in our neighborhood and beyond, but these are a couple of our favorites!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We want to dedicate our shoutout to our parents, Karen and Jordan Mozer. They are both loving parents and amazing artists: Dad, a painter, designer and architect; Mom, an interior designer, with a knack for drawing perfect portraits on the backs of napkins. They raised us to lead lives centered around creativity and passion for our crafts.

It was our mom’s love of cooking that inspired us to pursue food as kids. No matter how busy her work day was, she would always make a family dinner for us to enjoy together. She was always reading about nutrition, incorporating quinoa and flaxseeds, introducing us to exciting produce and local meat farmers.

Our dad’s work designing commercial spaces introduced us to the restaurant world. We grew up around legendary chefs like Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless, accompanying our parents on site visits, poking our heads into the kitchens to watch in awe as the cooks in their whites sauteed over big flames. Both of our parents taught us to love our work, work hard, but still stop and smell the flowers too.

We also want to dedicate our shoutout to all of our mentors in the food world. They took risks taking us under their wings and hiring us onto their teams from entry to management levels. All of their crafts make up ours in some way. We carry their lessons with us to all of our new projects. We hope we are making them proud!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oooey.studios/

Other: Eliza’s instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/elizamozer/

Chloe’s instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chloemozer/

Our upcoming pop up for Regarding Her:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reher-wine-flights-small-bites-tickets-1255953975149?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZty7AiI2AEpDzRsWQob1RiPvv3eQYe2TLLwBiEEen7LzXGG3bqft2gNhY_aem_mC1UjeAUFVrW8s6r23gCwA

Image Credits
Portraits by Carianne Older

Food Photos by Eliza Mozer