Ocean Essence.
Bottled.
Who We Are
It has been a privilege growing up on the West Coast of B.C. My family has been involved in the seafood business my whole life. I’ve spent my life until now exploring the world, cooking, experimenting.
Food brings people together - everyone has to eat. Many of my greatest memories revolve around food and the loved ones with whom I shared it. As a chef, I believe that when food is at its best, it is synonymous with joy. My goal is to help you present food at its best.
To me, the best food happens when you combine: high quality ingredients, dependable sourcing, tasty recipes, decent cooking technique and, of course, good company to share the experience. We have compiled some guidelines and interactive resources that should help you create and spread more joy yourselves by hitting all the right notes from sourcing to dining, or more succinctly from Tide to Table.
— Chef Brandon Pirie
What We Do —— Fermentation
Fish Sauces Fermenting now.
Our sauces are micro-brewed with care from fresh, simple ingredients on Quadra Island, BC.
We make exceptional, koji fermented fish sauces from locally harvested seafood.
We honour ocean resources by utilizing by-products that would otherwise often be wasted during seafood processing. Through koji fermentation, we transform it into delicious, umami-rich products.
Product
Details
Coming Soon
Why Fish Sauce?
I love fermented foods. Fermentation is one of the few processes that can make things tastier and healthier at the same time. It’s essentially just controlled rot.
Hobby fermenting grew to an obsession when I entered the inaugural NexStream Tech Challenge in 2019 with a simple idea: to help people add value to undervalued ingredients.
The idea evolved into making fish sauce with wasted seafood. My family operates Walcan Seafood and creates a lot of fresh seafood trim that is otherwise disposed of or, at best, turned into compost or pet food. This trimmed seafood is perfect for koji fermentation, the method I use, and the same method and culture used to make miso pastes and soy sauces.
Koji is the fungus aspergillus oryzae, which is most typically grown on rice, wheat and soybeans. It provides all the enzymes that break down the proteins, starches and fats into delicious, cravable flavors. Traditional fish sauce is fermented by the enzymes naturally present in a fish’s guts. It’s a slow process that results in deeply funky and savory sauces.
Koji breaks things down faster and results in lighter and fresher flavors and aromas.
Fermentation experiments with wild ingredients.
Sockeye spines, leftover from filleting, on racks for hot smoking, prior to fermenting for Smoked Salmon Sauce.
Doing More With Seafood
Developing Recipes with Tide to Table
We’re proud of all of our family, friends and the fisher-people who harvest and process seafood with Walcan Seafood and Tide to Table! They have delicious fresh and fresh-frozen seafood from our productive BC coast. It has been a delight collaborating to develop sauces and recipes to enhance these products, and make delicious seafood meals more accessible to you at home.
Chef Brandon, spreading a little joy throughout BC’s west coast with delicious, pre-marinated Tide to Table seafood products, ready for you to cook at home.
Celebrating Our Natural Resources
Learn tips and techniques for handling and preparing some of our extraordinary, wild ocean resources. From thawing to cooking times and temps, we aim to make seafood a simple, delicious option for you to prepare and enjoy at home.
Theme Boxes & Meals
Know Your Neighbours, Expand your Flavour-hood
Want an option to try a new recipe, without sourcing all the ingredients? We’re thrilled to partner with restaurants and chefs to explore diverse new flavours and develop tasty meals. In collaboration with Tide to Table, we are bringing delicious seafood Theme Boxes to your doorstep! Check out current and past boxes below and the corresponding Prep Guides.
We provide a detailed Preparation Guide with lots of photos and chef’s tips to walk you through the prep and cooking steps, worry free, ensuring you have fun preparing and sharing your special meal or family-style gathering.
Lobster 3-Course Dinner Box - Sold Out
Meet Asiatopia
Asiatopia Theme Box - Limited Availability on Tide to Table
The Grill Box - with Guest Chef Spencer Watts — JUST LAUNCHED!
Cooking on the Coast
Recipes, Cooking Techniques, Ideas
Who We Work With
a stunning & performant box
Finding a balance between value, cooling performance and environmental responsibility is challenging. We’re exceptionally grateful for the ongoing exploration of options with Cris Fletcher and his talented team at Genesis Marketing and G2CNC in Campbell River. These boxes are made from recycled cardboard.
Cris is passionate about quality, performance and delivering a product that speaks to all manner of values. Unboxing pictures below show the spectacular boxes developed for this program. If you need a partner who will work patiently, closely and iteratively with you on developing your product, Cris is your guy.
Artwork & Inspiration
Adrian McKerracher is an inspiring and dear friend. His thoughtful words and art have been crucial in helping us articulate the values that drive us. His work has defined the visual language of this project, and brought it to life.
We hope you enjoy Adrian’s artwork throughout the WildIsle website, and on printed packaging. He may be making some of the beautiful ocean-themed imagery on these pages available in limited prints. Stay tuned!
