OUr Guest Lineup
We’re thrilled to announce our 2023 Savour the Coast Culinary Retreat, running from June 1-5. This specially crafted retreat will have you immersed in the surrounding land and sea of the Great Bear Rainforest. Indulge in four days of impeccable food, delectable cocktails, fine wine, and discovery of wild ingredients.
Leading this breathtaking experience will be our Food and Beverage Manager Linnéa LeTourneau.
But that’s not all, this retreat is rounded out by an exciting lineup of special guests!
We are thrilled to introduce this year’s culinary retreat experts…
Embodying East Coast Cuisine
Timothy Charles of Fogo Island Inn
Tim Charles has been working in the world-class kitchen at Fogo Island Inn for over a decade. After years in the kitchen working his way up from Sous-Chef to Executive Sous Chef, in 2022, he was announced as the Inn’s Executive Chef. It’s with great excitement and an honour to have Tim attend this year’s Culinary Retreat as our guest chef.
Tim developed his love for cooking in his teens, when he got a job working as a cook’s assistant on a ship sailing the Eastern United States and the Great Lakes. His culinary journey continued, studying at the Culinary Institute of Canada and cooking in various Canadian restaurants before settling at Fogo.
He shares a similar cooking philosophy with us here at Nimmo Bay, embodying the flavour potentials of our sister coast. He loves using locally sourced ingredients, cooking with the seasons, and highlighting the bounty of Fogo Island. He’s working with wild, fished, foraged, farmed, and hunted ingredients on a daily basis. All the meals Tim cooks are thoughtfully balanced, edging on both a little bit indulgent but also making sure they are nourishing. It’s his philosophy that food should provide you with renewed energy and connect you to the landscape you’re visiting.
“I really cannot wait to join the talented team at Nimmo Bay for the Savour the Coast Culinary Retreat. What a treat to collaborate in such a magical setting, uniting two of Canada’s most iconic coastal foodways and to learn from each other.”
Tim Charles, Executive Chef, Fogo Island Inn
Masters of Bubbles
Bella Wines
Wendy Rose and Jay Drysdale are the co-founders of Bella Wines. Jay and Wendy were also the first to experience the culinary program at Nimmo Bay. Before picnics in the wild were a staple at the resort, Fraser Murray took the couple out for lunch. Though it being Nimmo Bay, this was no ordinary meal. They spent lunch foraging the forests for ramps and wild strawberries, they went out on the water and caught and seared cod, and scrapped salt off the shoreline rocks for seasoning. They were entirely captivated by the experience. Jay and Wendy were adamant that dinning in the wild needed to be a staple at Nimmo Bay, and the rest is history.
Bella itself is a sparkling wine house located in the Okanagan Valley that aims captures the natural beauty of British Columbia fruit. Bella is a pioneer of natural wines in BC and produces those quality sparkling wines by using traditional and ancestral methods. Their sparkling wines are staples at Nimmo Bay. Although Bella and Nimmo Bay may seem like an odd couple, a desert dweller and coastal rainforest resident, we meet in the middle with our values. We’re two family run businesses showcasing the beauty of our regions through food and drink, with a focus on ecosystem health and respect for our environments.
Wendy and Jay are thrilled to pour wine, cook with wild ingredients, and teach, you, our guests, about organics, love for the land, connection to food, and of course, absolutely delectable wines.
Ocean Treasures
Dakini Tidal Wilds
Amanda Swinimer’s love of the ocean led her to start Dakini Tidal Wilds in 2003. She built her local Vancouver Island business on providing customers with the highest quality wild-crafted seaweed. Each time Amanda dives for a harvest, she enters the water with love and reverence for the underwater world and what it offers. Dakini Tidal Wilds also operates with sustainability in mind. Amanda harvests the seaweed in a way that allows it to continue to grow. Harvesting at the most ideal time of the season also ensures a quality unique to Dakini Tidal Wilds’ products.
As the author of The Science and Spirit of Seaweed: Discovering Food, Medicine and Purpose in the Kelp Forests of the Pacific Northwest, Amanda will bring her skills and breadth of knowledge to Nimmo Bay during the culinary retreat. You’ll experience the wild flavour notes of fresh local seaweed harvested in our ocean waters. Plus, learn about different types of seaweed, the health benefits they provide, and how to cook with this delicious ingredient.
“I am looking forward to this very special culinary retreat, deep in the Great Bear Rainforest, where the ocean inlets kiss the edge of the old-growth temperate rainforest. Wild seaweeds flourish here, packed with more minerals than any other food and flavoured by the sea. I look forward to sharing my passion for seaweeds with both guests and staff at Nimmo Bay.”
Amanda Swinimer, Owner and Operator of Dakini Tidal Wilds
Beauty of Wild Food
Annemarie Koch
Annie is our local plant expert and naturalist. She has been a north Vancouver Island resident for her whole life and is currently living in Sointula. She fell in love with plants at a young age. Her mother was deeply enthralled by the beauty of wildflowers, and instilled those same values in her daughter. Annie took this passion and expanded on it, growing her knowledge of the natural world by investing her time learning how people and wildlife use plants. She’s grown her expertise through first-hand experience, going out into the wild of the island to identify as many plants as she could. To Annie, Nimmo Bay is the ideal place to quiet your mind and connect your spirit to the natural world that gives us life.
At the culinary retreat, Annie will share with you her passion for the beauty and value that plants hold. You’ll have the opportunity to fully immerse in the experience, going out to forage for treasures like oyster mushrooms and huckleberries. Savour the fresh flavours of these wild ingredients and Annie will teach you about the plant’s roles in our ecosystem. Along the way, slow down and appreciate the colours, fragrances, shapes, and sizes that these wonders bring to the forest floor.
Experience Culinary Bliss
Nimmo Bay is a food lover’s dream and the ultimate setting for a culinary adventure. The wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest sets the stage for an immersive and distraction free experience. The land and sea are bountiful, and you’ll be captivated by truly local fare.
At Nimmo Bay, the ocean offers up the freshest seafood, and the forest is a pantry of wild ingredients. The culinary retreat is a chance to taste, savour, appreciate, explore, learn, and do so surrounded by like-minded individuals.
We hope to see you there!
All unlisted photos by Jeremy Koreski