‘Boat-to-Table’ Feast Tofino Kicks Off This Week

Long table dinners by the ocean, tailgate parties, dockside wine tastings and a slew of big-deal chefs? Get ready for Feast Tofino May 6 to 22.

The sixth annual Feast Tofino is coming up this week—if you haven’t been (or even if you have), it’s an opportunity to meet local food producers, fisherman, chefs, brewers and foragers, and celebrate the incredible culinary talent in this stunning coastal town, and the bounty of the West Coast.From May 6-22, Tofino will be all about sharing their boat-to-table philosophy through collaborative dinners with local and guest chefs, unique dining opportunities, and events that showcase their strong culinary community. Talented Tofino chefs—there are many—find inspiration in Clayoquot Sound, local farms and the dense old-growth forests of the Pacific Rim year-round, but Feast provides even more reason to gather around the table to share stories and good food. (Photo: Christopher Pouget.)

This year, visiting chefs include Lora Kirk of Ruby Watchco in Toronto, Anita Lo, chef and owner of Annisa in New York City, Justin Leboe of Model Milk and Pigeonhole in Calgary, Nicole Gomes of Nicole Gourmet and the new Cluck ‘n’ Cleaver in Calgary, Kunal Ghose of Red Fish Blue Fish and now Fish Hook, a new Victoria hotspot, John Crook and Erik Heck of Wild Tale in Vancouver, Jared Summers of the Noble Pig in Kamloops, Hiroshi and Miju Kawai of Basho Cafe in Vancouver, and Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy, the award-winning vegetable restaurant on New York City’s Lower East Side.

(Photo: Jeremy Koreski.)

The kick-off party May 6 will take over the patio at Shelter with an East Coast-West Coast Craft Mashup, followed by a boat-to-tailgate party May 7, collaborative dinners and a Long Table dinner at Pacific Sands Beach Resort. On May 14 there will be a dock festival—an afternoon of tasting in Tofino’s inner harbour—followed by dumpling night with chef Nicole Gomes and a collaboration between En Route magazine’s top restaurants of 2014 and 2015, with chef Justin Leboe joining Nick Nutting at Wolf in the Fog, and again at the Tofino Botanical Gardens. The two-week feastival wraps up May 29 with a pescetarian pilau on the beach—a final feast with chef Kunal Ghose at Ocean Village.

If you miss Feast:The fourteenth annual Tofino Food and Wine Festival celebrates food and wine June 3 to 5 with a smaller smorgasbord of festivities, centred around Grazing in the Gardens, an event showcasing local culinary talent and BCVQA wines in the stunning Tofino Botanical Gardens.MORE: Tofino’s Hottest RestaurantMORE: The Ultimate Guide to Tofino (Photo: Courtesy Pacific Sands Beach Resort.)