"The Best Smoked Fish You've Ever Had"
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Awards and Reviews
Sunset Magazine (March 2006)
New York Times Magazine (November 2003)
GQ Magazine (March 2009)
San Francisco Chronicle (June 2003)
Trend Central Newsletter (January 2007)
Jill Prescott Food & Friends (May 2006)
Go World Travel Publishing (March 2005)
Inside Napa Valley (October 1999)
Why: Tender, moist, and intensely smoky, Mike's is the perfect melt-in-your-mouth fish. "I could live on this" one taster raved.
The Back Story: There really is a Cap'n Mike. His name's Mike Hiebert, and he's been fishing Northern California's Bodega Bay for 20 years.
© 2006 Sunset Magazine (reprinted with their permission)
These top notch producers of gift items, all American made artisanal foods every bit as wonderful as those we once coveted from the Old Country.
Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoked Salmon is a husband-and-wife company that smokes fresh fish from California's north coast using his Native American family's techniques. The result is a selection of moist, flaky and flavorful albacore, black cod (sable), steelhead trout, and their specialty, salmon. Gift boxes are available ($75 - $750). Along with seasonal specialties, Cap'n Mike offers, naturally, a "Fish of the Month Club," $75.00/month for two fish each month or for as many months as you like.
© 2003 New York Times Magazine
The Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke, at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, may be the finest breakfast sandwich on the planet: a thick slice of crusty sourdough bread, a schmear of homemade cream cheese, some tender pieces of smoked salmon, slices of heirloom tomato in rainbow colors, shaved sweet red onion, and a pinch of lavender-scented sea salt. Good morning, San Francisco!
© 2009 GQ Magazine
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San Francisco Chronicle
June 13, 2003
"How A Patient Cap'n Mike Puts The 'Fish' In Aficionado"
When Michael "Cap'n Mike" Hiebert smokes his wild salmon, it takes him three days to do what others do in 12 hours.
"Like when a guy takes a girl out to dinner," he said, "you just can't rush it."
Hiebert and wife Sally are the proprietors of the Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke fish company in Rohnert Park. Hiebert, a Mennonite minister and Cherokee medicine man, uses his Indian grandmother's recipe for smoked salmon. In addition to various types of smoked salmon, he also smokes steelhead trout, albacore tuna, and black cod (known as sable on the East Coast).
Hiebert believes that hot-smoking, which is smoking for up to 12 hours at temperatures ranging from 120 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, is easy to do, while cold-smoking at 70 to 90 degrees for up to three days requires finesse. He finds the cold-smoking technique to be "so artsy" that "I can give you the exact recipe and you still couldn't duplicate it."
Stephen Bardessono, the manager at Sunshine Foods in St. Helena, applauds the "firm and flaky texture" of Holy Smoke fish. He also likes that it is not hot-smoked and has "no additives and no preservatives -- just a clean flavor."
Hiebert brines the fillet, allows it to dry, then smokes it slowly. He favors alder, which is what he was taught to use by the Indian elders. "French oak is to Chardonnay what alder is to salmon," said Hiebert, who likes the salmon to be the dominant flavor, with just a hint of smoke. He believes hickory would overpower the fish, and although he likes apple wood, he is concerned about pesticides.
Tony Knickerbocker, a caterer in St.Helena, orders the tuna and sable almost every week -- for personal consumption. He said he appreciates the texture, which has not been made completely to mush by the smoking process, and likes how the flavor is delicate, "not like eating a mouthful of smoke."
Tony Poer, managing partner of Hayes and Vine Wine Bar in San Francisco, said he likes Holy Smoke because it "tastes like the essence" of fish and the flavor doesn't get in the way of the wine. "It tastes really fresh and there is a good balance of smoky intensity," he said.
What better way to get fresh fish than to procure it yourself? "Know thy fishmonger," said Hiebert, who has four fishing boats supplying Holy Smoke. Although he prefers to stay local, he ventures as far as Washington if necessary, depending on availability, weather and demand.
Hiebert believes Swedes and Danes have done a good job raising farmed salmon for more than 100 years. But he prefers wild salmon to those farmed industrially, which are often crowded in pens and fed antibiotics and artificial coloring agents.
Fortunately, he said, this is a great year for wild salmon because of the rain -- the streams have opened up and the salmon food source has increased. His boats have even caught rare white king salmon this year, which he sells to Dean and DeLuca.
There were few clues in Hiebert's childhood to his future as a fish aficionado. He was born in Dinuba (Tulare County). His mother, Alvalyne "Sugar" also known as "Laughing Sugar Mom," was a Cherokee from the North Coast. His father, James, was a Russian Mennonite who grew grapes for Christian Brothers and oranges for Sunkist. As a child, Hiebert earned the nickname "Holy Smoke" for using the expression incessantly. The moniker got further play after he received a doctorate in Divinity from the Mennonite Brother Biblical Seminary in Fresno in the late 1970s. Later on, it became an apt name for his company.
Fish began swimming into Hiebert's life in the 1980s, when he lived on a boat in Porto Bodega and worked as a commercial fisherman. Native Americans and Swedes long had been smoking salmon in their backyards for private consumption, but by the '80s, Hiebert feared the practice might become extinct.
No wonder. In Western medicine, salmon is lauded for its Omega-3 fatty acids. Among Native Americans, salmon medicine is about a kind of abundance that can't be earned, Hiebert said. One is simply blessed with it.
One day in 1987, he says, he had a strong "feeling" he should sell smoked salmon.
Since then, Hiebert has cultivated a following that includes celebrity clients such as CBS news anchor Dan Rather. Hiebert says he prefers to concentrate on mail orders and farmers' markets rather than on retail outlets.
He also has gotten more involved with his Indian heritage, finding his tribe through a genealogy search. The tribe promptly made him the medicine man.
He continued his education with the Karuk tribe along the Klamath River and the Inuits in Alaska, and just recently studied with a healer in Micronesia.
Hiebert met his wife, Sally, at the San Rafael farmers' market in 1992. A Jewish psychotherapist from New York, Sally recalled encountering the "blond surfer dude" hawking smoked fish and thinking to herself, "What does a California guy know about lox?"
They got married three weeks after their first date on Salmon Creek Beach, north of Bodega Bay. Sally said even though Hiebert was the only beau she has had who wasn't Jewish, he was the only one her grandmother didn't complain about "because she didn't want her lox supply cut off."
© 2003 San Francisco Chronicle
Holiday gift giving often times leaves a lasting impression on our waistlines. But this tasty gift from one fish-loving family member to another proved that not all food-focused presents are guilt-laden. From Salmon Jerky to Smoked Albacore to Indian Smoked Salmon and (our favorite) Salmon Candy, founder and smoker Cap'n Mike pulls the freshest catch out of the Pacific and smokes them himself over Alderwood coals. Preservative free, packed with protein and good-for-you Omega-3 fatty acids, we've added their Fish of the Month Club to our New Year's Resolutions.
© 2007 Intelligence Group
Probably the most amazing 'snacks' we've ever sampled. Strolling through the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, we discovered Cap'n Mike's Salmon Candy. Here is a snack that is rich in protein and omega 3 fatty acids and is chemical, preservative and nitrate free. The recipe is his mothers and is 83 years old. The strips of salmon are cured in honey and smoked for 3 days. All fish is wild caught and smoked over Alderwood. This low calorie healthy snack blew us away as did every item this fabulous business features. He offers a wide variety of exceptional products. This is a perfect gift for the anyone that loves great food from a true artisan. It is one of our favorites! Be sure to try the Smoked Steelhead Trout too. He ships!
© 2006 Jill Prescott (reprinted by permission)
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Go World Travel Publishing
May 2005
"A Gourmet's Paradise -- Budget Eateries in San Francisco"
Where is this gourmet's paradise? It's the old Ferry Building at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero. I discovered the market on my second day in San Francisco on a recent trip. It's on Saturday that the market truly springs to life, when countless stalls, selling everything from mushrooms to walnuts, surround the building.
My favorite stop, because of my profound passion for anything salmon, is Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke. Captain Mike and his wife are regulars on Saturday, and their alderwood-smoked salmon, has been properly baptized with a special recipe before being slowly smoked over alderwood coals. It isn't cheap, about $32/lb, but it's so moist and delicious that you won?t complain.
© 2005 Go World Publishing
One of our finest specialty foods available at the Napa market comes from Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke (formerly Northwest Connection). Cap'n Mike and Sally Hiebert produce some of the finest smoked fish available. Since Mike is a former Methodist minister, they changed their label to the new Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke and, as the saying goes, holy smoke is their stuff good.
It all started as a hobby for Mike, who learned his trade from the Snohomish and Hoh Indians in Washington. Mike, who is half Native American, lived with the Snohomish and learned how to smoke the fish they caught on wooden racks over alderwood covered with deerskins. The hobby became an obsession when he returned home to California.
A trip to the local farmers market with 30 pounds of his smoked salmon was sold out within an hour. At that point the hobby turned into the business now know as Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke. The product line increased from smoked salmon to salmon jerky, lox, trout, tuna and other fish. All this from a guy whose resume includes being an ordained minister and a former VP of sales and marketing at Melitta Coffe Company. We don't just owe our thanks to Mike for the smoked fish. He was also responsible for fine gourmet coffee reaching the West Coast.
Sally's background is equally unusual. She spent 15 years as a stage actress in New York and worked as a Gestalt therapist before moving to California.
Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke products are all chemical and preservative free with no nitrates. The natural brining and smoking process, combined with vacuum seal packaging, captures the delicious flavor, moisture and oils.
I hate to tell you this, but their stuff is actually good for you. Their products are a high source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids, which health care professionals attribute to lowering blood cholesterol. And salmon ranks among one of the lowest calorie foods at just 34 calories per ounce.
For a sweet treat, try their salmon candy, cured in honey and smoked for three days.
© 1999 Inside Napa Valley
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