When people plan a wilderness vacation in British Columbia, food isn’t always the first thing they think about.
The mountains, wildlife and adventures usually come first.
At Firvale Wilderness Camp, we think the food should be just as memorable.
Our approach has never been to simply provide meals between activities. Food is part of the experience—something guests can look forward to after a day hiking through the Coast Mountains, floating the rivers of the Great Bear Rainforest or searching for grizzly bears along the Atnarko.
We want dinner to be another highlight of the day.
Wilderness Dining Without the Formality
Firvale isn’t a traditional luxury resort, and we don’t want our dining experience to feel like a formal hotel restaurant.
Instead, we take many of the things we love about great restaurants—quality ingredients, careful preparation, creativity and presentation—and bring them into a relaxed wilderness lodge environment.
There are no reservations to make and nowhere you need to drive for dinner.
You come back from your adventure, clean up, grab a drink and sit down for a meal.
The atmosphere is casual.
The food isn’t.
20 Years in the Kitchen
Firvale’s culinary program is led by co-owner Bobby Sherlock, whose cooking career began more than 20 years ago.
Bobby started cooking professionally in Vancouver in the early 2000s, working in fine-dining kitchens before eventually shifting toward smaller, experience-focused hospitality.
That change took him to the west coast of Vancouver Island, where food and adventure increasingly became connected.
Rather than cooking for hundreds of anonymous restaurant guests, the focus became cooking for small groups of travellers—people who had spent the day kayaking, sailing, hiking or exploring the BC coast.
Bobby later created food-focused sailing trips through Barkley Sound, combining wilderness travel with meals prepared along the journey.
Today, he manages the culinary program at Firvale Wilderness Camp. During the winter, he also works as head chef at Bella Coola Heli Sports’ Sand Creek Ranch, a small and remote lodge on the Chilcotin Plateau.
Those experiences have shaped the way we cook at Firvale.
We aren’t trying to operate a restaurant in the middle of the wilderness.
We’re trying to create great food that belongs in the wilderness.
Cooking for a Small Group Changes Everything
One of the advantages of being a small, independently owned wilderness camp is that we don’t need to cook like a large hotel.
We’re not feeding hundreds of people every evening.
That allows us to change menus, work with ingredients that are available locally and put considerably more attention into individual dishes.
It also means we get to know the people we’re cooking for.
Guests aren’t table numbers.
They’re people we’ve spent the day hiking, rafting and exploring with.
By dinner, everyone usually has a story from the day.
That creates a completely different dining environment from a conventional restaurant or large resort.
From Our Garden to the Dinner Table
During the growing season, some of our produce comes from right here at Firvale.
Our garden and greenhouse allow us to grow herbs, greens, vegetables and other ingredients that can move an extremely short distance from the soil to the kitchen.
What we can’t grow ourselves, we try to source locally whenever practical.
We work with Winter Sun Farm, a local organic farm in the Bella Coola Valley, for seasonal produce and ingredients.
This means the menu naturally changes with the season.
Rather than designing every dish months in advance and then finding ingredients to fit it, we can sometimes work in the opposite direction.
What’s growing?
What’s particularly good right now?
What can we build around it?
That’s one of our favourite ways to cook.
British Columbia on the Plate
Living on the BC coast also gives us access to exceptional seafood.
Our menus regularly draw inspiration from the Pacific Northwest and can feature sustainably sourced seafood such as salmon, halibut and black cod alongside meats, vegetables and seasonal ingredients.
But we don’t try to make every dish stereotypically “West Coast.”
Our food takes inspiration from everywhere.
You might find Japanese flavours accompanying black cod, Mediterranean influences on vegetables, classic French techniques in a sauce, or something cooked over fire simply because that’s the best way to prepare it.
The goal isn’t to fit the menu into a particular category.
It’s to make food people are excited to eat.
What Does a Day of Food at Firvale Look Like?
A typical day begins with a hearty breakfast designed for whatever adventure lies ahead.
Depending on the day’s itinerary, guests may then head out hiking, bear viewing, rafting or exploring another part of the Bella Coola Valley.
Lunches need to work around those adventures. Sometimes that means something portable and practical; other days allow for a more relaxed meal.
Then comes dinner.
This is where we can slow things down.
Dinner might feature local or BC seafood, slowly braised meats, seasonal vegetables, fresh salads, handmade sauces and a dessert prepared in-house.
Menus change regularly depending on the season, guest dietary requirements and what ingredients are available.
You shouldn’t necessarily know exactly what you’re eating three months before you arrive.
We think that’s part of the fun.
Dietary Restrictions Don’t Have to Mean an Afterthought
Small-group cooking also gives us greater flexibility when accommodating dietary needs.
Vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-conscious guests shouldn’t simply receive the regular dish with half of the interesting components removed.
Whenever possible, we want the alternative to feel like an actual dish designed for that guest.
That might mean making vegan cheeses and sauces, changing a dessert completely, building a plant-based entrée around seasonal vegetables or adjusting an entire component of the menu.
Advance notice is always helpful, particularly given our remote location, but our goal remains the same:
Everyone should be excited when their plate arrives.
Why Food Tastes Better After an Adventure
There is also something about eating after spending the day outside.
Food simply hits differently.
After hiking for several hours or spending a cool September morning floating the river looking for grizzly bears, sitting down to a thoughtfully prepared dinner feels especially satisfying.
That’s one of the reasons food and adventure have always made sense together for us.
The wilderness creates the appetite.
The kitchen gets to take it from there.
Not Fine Dining. Not Camp Food.
If we had to describe the Firvale food program, it probably sits somewhere between two worlds.
We’re not trying to create a formal fine-dining restaurant.
But we’re definitely not serving traditional “camp food.”
Instead, we want to combine chef-driven cooking with the relaxed atmosphere of a small wilderness lodge.
Good ingredients.
Proper technique.
Interesting flavours.
Generous portions.
And none of the unnecessary formality.
Food Is Part of the Firvale Experience
People usually discover Firvale because of Bella Coola.
They want to see grizzly bears, explore the Great Bear Rainforest, hike through the Coast Mountains or experience somewhere in British Columbia that still feels genuinely wild.
That’s exactly why we’re here too.
But when we created Firvale, we wanted the experience back at the lodge to matter just as much as the adventures outside it.
Comfortable and interesting accommodations were part of that.
So was thoughtful design.
And food was always going to be a major piece.
Because some of the best days at Firvale don’t end when the raft reaches shore or the hiking boots come off.
They end a few hours later, sitting around a table, eating something great and talking about what happened that day.
That’s our idea of wilderness dining.
