A New Spin on Wild West Coast Weddings

When COVID-19 crashed the summer wedding season, Tofino and Ucluelet chefs had to find ways to think big about going smaller.

But as any chef will tell you, the quick pivot is something nimble kitchen professionals excel at. 

As couples from all over the world cancelled or postponed long-booked events, some B.C. residents who had larger weddings planned elsewhere in the province decided to downsize and shift their celebration to Vancouver Island’s West Coast.

It meant embracing a smaller footprint where chefs prioritize guest and staff safety. In exchange for concessions, couples could get hitched in one of the most stunning places in Canada, an isolated location with tall trees, rocky beaches and pounding surf.

“This is the exact place people in Canada want to come to to get to some wide-open space,” says Carmen Ingham, executive chef at The Pointe Restaurant at Tofino’s The Wickaninnish Inn on Chesterman Beach.

Along with its wild beauty, this stretch of the Island’s West Coast is known for unique, seasonal cuisine from creative chefs influenced by the region’s natural bounty. They use foods from local purveyors, foragers and fishers, as well as farms and cheesemakers from Parksville to the fertile Cowichan Valley. It’s a place where distinctive terroir and ocean counterpart merroir, meet.

Weddings here have always been on the small side—part of the charm of this remote location. With the health concerns around the pandemic, they’re even more intimate. Guest numbers have been limited to 50, with only six people per table. No more servers passing canapé trays at cocktail receptions or the popular communal family style dinners at long tables.

Paul Moran, former executive chef of Tofino Resort + Marina’s 1909 Kitchen and the 2019 Top Chef Canada winner, says today’s weddings are about the dovetailing of safety and community.

With smaller gatherings, private chefs like Moran can create a beach lunch or cater an intimate dinner for a couple and their wedding party that’s finished on the barbecue at their Airbnb or rental cottage.

Pre-Ceremony Foraging and Fishing

In the fall, Moran may lead one of his chef-guided wild mushroom foraging trips the day before a wedding, where the bride and groom can gather ingredients for their celebration feast.

“We’ve got chanterelles, porcini, we were getting some blue chanterelles last year which is really cool because they’re quite hard to find,” Moran says. The mushrooms could wind up on pizzas like those made in 1909 Kitchen’s wood-burning oven or in a variety of creative dishes.

And here’s a twist: the cracked crab, salmon, ling cod or one of 20 varieties of rockfish served to wedding guests at 1909 Kitchen may have been caught by the soon-to-be-weds through the Tofino Resort + Marina’s Cook Your Catch program. 

Couples could also dig for clams and oysters for their wedding meal. And with the free diving program, also run from the marina, the bride and groom can catch any in-season species. “It’s a great thing to do for adventurous couples,” says Moran.

Photo by Chris Pouget and Duncan Booth, courtesy of The Wickanninish Inn

Drop-and-Go Catering 

Ian Riddick, who opened Heartwood Kitchen Food Outfitter in Ucluelet in the historic circa-1930 former Matterson family home two years ago, lost $250,000 in business when COVID hit. His new wedding approach involves focusing on “high-end, drop-and-go” catering. 

Riddick jokes his chafing dishes are locked up for the duration. A ready-to-eat meal of seasonal salads, a main dish like butter-braised local halibut with barley risotto or braised short ribs with green pea risotto, and a wedding cake from a local bakery are delivered to a couple’s vacation rental house or cabin. China and cutlery are provided and removed, with the food laid out according to WorkSafeBC regulations.

Ambitious couples may even want to do a crab boil for their wedding party. “Guests are looking for small weddings and high-end experiences,” says Riddick. 

Riddick gets at least a couple of enquiries a week about wedding dinners. Couples also have the more expensive option of booking the entire restaurant for a midweek event for up to 15 guests, with access to the garden for a pre-dinner reception.

Ingham says the smaller gatherings dictated by social distancing rules are not necessarily a bad thing. “I prefer smaller groups, for sure,” Ingham says. “A reduction in size is kind of a nice thing for us…I’m looking forward to offering an even more personalized experience than before.”

For example, in place of passed canapés, wedding guests may get a miniature picnic basket with a selection of Canadian cheese, perhaps Inn-made pâté or candied sablefish and cured meats and sausages from Picnic Charcuterie in Tofino.

A favourite wedding dinner location for guests at the Inn is Shell Beach, a private area near the property. Guest numbers here have been cut from 50 to about 20, with a maximum of six people at each table. The meal is served buffet style and servers plate the food to limit touch points. Tables are pre-set with cutlery and glassware. The vibe is still West Coast romantic, with couples celebrating their marriage surrounded by tall trees and the sound of rolling surf. 

Ingham says wedding menu planning starts with whatever the couple wants to have, but “we want to put our West Coast spin on it as much as we can.” Wild ingredients have starring roles. So his version of surf and turf features local steelhead trout and beef tenderloin finished with spruce tips harvested a few metres away from where guests are seated on Shell Beach.

Wild West Coast Elopements

While larger weddings have been cancelled, bookings have boomed for the most pared-down version of a wedding there is: eloping.

The Wickaninnish Inn elopement coordinator Caitlin Ronda helps couples arrange everything from the officiant to the wedding cake, capping the day with a dinner at The Pointe Restaurant. These small-scale nuptials are increasingly popular in the wake of COVID-19 and while the couple can have up to 10 guests, it’s often just for two. 

“It’s simple and relaxed with the focus being on the couple getting married in a beautiful spot,” says Ronda. 

Photo by Paul Levy, courtesy of The Wickanninish Inn

COVID-19’s ‘Silver Lining’ for Chefs

Ingham calls his unheard-of amount of time off during lockdown “a nice little silver lining of COVID.” Chefs have had a rare chance to forage, preserve and prepare items to be used on plates through fall and next spring for wedding parties and dining room patrons.

When the Inn closed in March, Ingham needed to figure out how to deal with fridges full of food he was unable to serve or sell. He turned 16 hotel pans of vegetables into pickles. He’s also pickled salal berry shoots he picked near the beach. The programmable Rational oven typically in use in the busy kitchen was suddenly available for a two-month fermentation on sunchokes and to make black garlic.

One place you’ll see Ingham’s foraged bounty is in a new dish he’s working on. The nod to traditional pemmican is a version of elk tartare with preserved salal berries.

Riddick agrees, saying, “Restaurateurs...have created more new ideas in the last three months than in the last 10 years.” He says that with the bounty of chef-foraged foods in the hands of creative kitchen teams, diners have some unique dining experiences ahead. “Guests will have the most personally curated foods ever.”