Great Lakes, great catch

Affinity Fish co-owners Jon Klip and Matt Taylor grew up in the High Park neighbourhood in Toronto, minutes from Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. 10 years ago, they met while working part-time in a local Japanese kitchen knife shop, taking a break from their day jobs as chefs. They never imagined becoming business partners selling humanely-sourced fish from another of the Great Lakes, offering special omakase meals in their very own shop.

Klip moved to Kyoto in 2017 and worked in kaiseki restaurants, coming back to Toronto in early 2020. Like Taylor, who honed his craft and expertise in Toronto’s top Japanese restaurants, they’d both developed an understanding and appreciation of Japanese fish culture and preparation techniques. When they met up again on Klip’s return, they realised they were asking themselves the same question: Was there a way to use the bounty from the Great Lakes as a source of fish? The fact that much of the high-end fish consumed in North America had a huge carbon footprint, coming from New Zealand and Japan pretty much in first-class cabins, or that 75% of most catches in North America get discarded because of unwanted species caught in the bycatch, didn’t escape them either.

Klip and Taylor also wondered if the ikejime fish slaughtering techniques, so well understood and appreciated in Japan, could be applied to freshwater fish in Ontario. “These days, in the English-speaking world, ikejime is really a buzzword,” Klip explains. “In Japan, it refers to a lot of different processes. Here it means that the fish are killed intentionally and carefully, with quality in mind.”

_{Jon Klip and Matt Taylor}

The duo hatched a plan to start a fish and seafood business focused on thinking globally and acting locally. Their goal: to share the abundance of locally-sourced freshwater fish, handling it carefully to minimise animal suffering, while prioritising sustainable fishing practices.

By the time Affinity Fish opened the doors to its azure-blue-tiled premises in July 2022, Klip and Taylor had been working on the project for over two years. In January 2020, they reached out through one of Taylor’s mentors, chef Jacob Sharkey Pearce, to indigenous fisherman Guy Nadjiwan of the Cape Crocker Reserve on Lake Huron. Nadjiwan, a Chippewa of the Nawash Unceded First Nation at Neyaashiinigmiing, was in business already, selling wholesale and retail on the dock and to restaurants.

The pair first got on the boat with Nadjiwan in July 2020. “Using ikejime technique in Japan on ocean fish is well documented, with a lot of understanding of the intricacies of each species and how techniques are modified and adjusted for each fish,” Taylor says. “Nobody was doing this on freshwater fish, though. There was a bit of trial and error, but we figured out a way to make it work.”

Klip and Taylor also work with Allen Robichaud, another indigenous fisherman based at Cape Crocker Reserve. “We’re fitting these humane techniques into a system that’s already in place,” Taylor says. “It’s important for us to prioritise the actual handling of the fish: how you pick the fish up, how you place the fish down, not drop-kicking it, not throwing it into the bin. That’s just as important as the ikejime process.”

Affinity Fish (since they both love fish, the name made sense) started by selling wholesale to restaurants directly off the boat, developing expertise and followers along the way. Through small-scale pop-up dinners, they raised funds for their brick-and-mortar premises, in Toronto at Sakai Bar, Taylor’s former place of work, and in Montreal at Vinette, a tiny seafood space in the back of Joe Beef’s Liverpool House.

With whitefish and pickerel the most desirable lake fish, part of Affinity’s identity is utilising bycatch fish, such as burbot, a cold water species native to Ontario. The humane slaughtering techniques Klip and Taylor use result in fish with a cleaner flavour, firmer flesh, and the ability to be aged, something that’s not possible with fish that die in the net and are handled the conventional way. Working with lesser-known species gives them an economy of scale because they can catch fewer fish since they’re using everything they catch.

The shiny long storefront is less than three kilometres from their boyhood homes, with a view of ageing fish hanging artfully in a specially designed glassed-in, walk-in fridge – not on ice. At any given time, you might see some of the 20 species they’ve caught, including lake, rainbow and brown trout, whitefish, burbot, pickerel, pike, drum, and coho and chinook salmon. A 14-seat sleek counter does double duty as seating for their omakase dinners which take place four or five times a month and an up-close service worktop for Klip and Taylor to prepare fish for retail customers, affably dispensing cooking advice while they slice and fillet.

The approachable pair use these multicourse dinners to educate diners about the fish, its origins, and their approach. Meals are served on antique Japanese ceramics (some for sale), highlighting the simplicity of each dish on the ever-changing menu. Inspired by the seasons, the current catch and local produce, and informed by Klip and Taylor’s Japanese training, meals might start with usuzukuri-style thinly sliced Lake Huron pickerel, move on to a whitefish roe chawanmushi, or an owan clear soup course with Pacific kombu and a pike quenelle. Desserts are equally special: Kuzu dofu with wild blueberry and soba, or a hojicha Bavaroise with kanpyo and chestnut are two recent sweet endings to the always-popular, reservations-only meals. Sommelier friends are on hand, too, recommending wines and sakes to complement the courses.

“We built this space with the intention of still being able to cook,” says Klip, ever the chef. “We know a lot more about cooking than we do about running a small business.”

Yuan-marinated lake trout recipe from Affinity Fish

Yuan is a famous Japanese marinade comprised of sake, mirin, shoyu and yuzu. It not only seasons the fish, but also cures it, allowing it to remain juicy and succulent even when fully cooked.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

500g/1.1lbs dry-aged wild lake trout*

350ml/1.5 cups sake

200ml/0.8 cups mirin

300ml/1.25 cups shoyu

40g/1.4oz yuzu or other citrus rind, cut into slices

* If dry-aged wild lake trout isn’t available, Arctic char would be the closest – but any salmon or trout would do.

Method

Bring the sake and mirin to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until all the alcohol odour has evaporated. Cut the heat and add the yuzu rind and shoyu and refrigerate overnight.

For skin-on fillets (as pictured) pour the cold marinade 1cm deep into a shallow container. Place the lake trout fillet skin side up in the marinade so the dry aged skin does not contact the marinade.

For skinless portions of fish, you may submerge them entirely in the marinade.

Marinate 1-3 nights.

Remove the fish from the marinade, skewer and grill or broil until fully cooked.