The Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia celebrates 10 years of the Spot Prawn Festival with new and exciting events that include an inaugural Spot Prawn Gala at the Vancouver Club on May 13. The black tie, six-course gala celebrates 10 years of educating locals and visitors about this Pacific North West delicacy.
Along with the Spot Prawn Gala, are cooking classes at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (PICA) on Saturday, May 14. Learn how to purchase, store, prepare and cook spot prawns.
Tickets for each event are limited so don’t delay!
- Buy your tickets for the inaugural Spot Prawn Gala here.
- Buy your tickets for Spot Prawn cooking classes at PICA here.
Learn More About The Spot Prawn Festival Events:
Chairs for the 10th Anniversary Spot Prawn celebration are Chefs’ Table Society of BC members, chef Ryan Bissell and chef Robert Clark.
Spot Prawn Gala
The Spot Prawn Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with a gala! Chefs from across Canada will gather at the Vancouver Club on May 13 at 6:30pm (cocktails and canapés) for this black tie optional event. Chefs Angus An(Vancouver), Ned Bell (Vancouver), Matthias Fong(Calgary), Anthony Walsh (Toronto), Bill Jones (Cowichan) and Sean Cousins (Vancouver) will prepare six courses featuring BC Spot Prawns and other delicacies paired to local libations. Bella Gelateria will provide a sorbet for palate cleansing. Dessert will be provided by the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. Proceeds of the event will be given to Oceanwise.
Tickets are $200.00 plus gst and service charge, available here.
Spot Prawn Cooking Class
In celebration of the 10th anniversary, the Chefs’ Table Society and the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts have joined forces and are offering a unique cooking class!
Join us at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts on Saturday, May 14 for a one-hour cooking class revealing the secrets of how to purchase, store, prepare, and cook spot prawns. A delicious dish featuring spot prawn will be served and a Q&A to follow.
Attendees of the cooking class will receive a certificate for a 10% discount on a purchase of fresh spot prawns this season at
The Fish Counter, along with an apron from PICA.
Your hosts will include chef Darren Clay, executive culinary chef instructor at PICA, and chefRobert Clark, founder of the Spot Prawn Festival and owner of The Fish Counter.There are six class times available, from 11am to 4pm.
Tickets are available for $35 + gst + service charge here.
About Spot Prawns:
Wild BC spot prawns are a delicacy known around the world for their sweet, delicate flavour and firm texture, and are the largest of the seven commercial species of shrimp found on the west coast of Canada. While they vary in size, they are most recognizable for their reddish brown colour, which turns bright pink when cooked, defining white spots on their tail and white horizontal bars on the carapace.
BC spot prawns are available live during the harvest season, which usually starts in May and lasts anywhere from six to eight weeks. Prawn fishermen spread baited traps along the rocky ocean floor at depths ranging from 40 to 100 metres. This method has minimal impact on ocean habitat and very low levels of by catch of other species.
In BC, approximately 2,450 metric tonnes are harvested annually, with about 65% of the harvest coming from the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
BC spot prawns are very popular in Japan and the rest of Asia, with more than 90% of BC’s commercial catch consumed there. Most of the prawns are frozen at sea by fishermen, and then packed and exported across the Pacific. The remaining few, however, are available to be enjoyed fresh in local BC restaurants and kitchens during the fishing season! Frozen spot prawns are also available in Canada year round.
Spot Prawns are a sustainable choice
Spot prawn stocks are carefully and sustainably managed to ensure that they remain available to enjoy for many years to come, including:
- Limiting the number of vessels that can commercially harvest spot prawns
- Limiting the number of traps that can be used
- Returning females with eggs live to the ocean
- Monitoring the spot prawn population and closing the fishery when prawn stocks approach a pre-determined level
- Learn more about Spot prawns from Ocean Wise
About the Chefs’ Table Society:
The Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia is a non-profit society comprised of BC’s leading chefs and culinary professionals. It is a chef-administered, province-wide collaborative dedicated to creating a foundation for the exchange of information between culinary professionals. The Society supports innovative and sustainable programs that will inspire, educate and nurture BC chefs, producers and the local food industry. The Chefs’ Table Society secures apprenticeships for and bestows bursaries to emerging local chefs and also finances culinary education programs in BC schools. For more information or to become a member visit
chefstablesociety.com.
