A ‘Pirates and Farmers’ knife shop homage to makers, small business and those in hospitality- a living Sawachi Feast for the future.
Preparing for Bernal Cutlery’s next phase, we are conjuring the spirit of Kochi Prefecture with Yuzukararin at the table as Bernal Cutlery turns 20 this spring. -Kelly Kozak
What can I say after almost 20 years of Bernal Cutlery? Our little knife shop is not so little anymore and has a life of its own. I often find myself surprised to see how much the knife shop is imbued with meaning for and from the community and that it has made its way into the hearts and minds of people. Operating a small business is not for the faint of heart; it has possibly aged me more than raising my three kids in San Francisco, but it also makes me stubborn and committed in the very best ways, which bears the best fruit. Honestly, it’s brought me so much unexpected joy, humility, and purpose, and, of course, pride, especially as we creep up on a big anniversary. In March, we will turn 20.
For the first ten years of Bernal Cutlery, I often referred to our little knife shop as a pirate ship, which felt something like teasing out the answer Kathy Acker might have had to David Hickey’s question in his essay Pirates and Farmers, “Are you a farmer or a pirate?”. In Hickey’s essay “Pirates and Farmers,” he proposes that there are only two kinds of people in the world: “Farmers are those who build fences and control territory, and pirates are those who tear down fences and cross borders” (Hickey p.17). He drives his point home by claiming one cannot be both, and by the time you are 40, you must know which one you are: a farmer or a pirate.
I’m a hair past 50 now, and as much as David Hickey lit a torch for my generation, I’m not sure I agree with him here on some of the pirate and farmer binary details, but I like the exercise so much that I ask myself the question a lot as a sort of guard rail for my life as a business owner. Sometimes, I find myself wanting to be a farmer. It seems that being a farmer would be easier somehow. But still, after many years of this practice, I know in my bones that our shop, its people, and its business will always be a pirate ship full of pirates doing and making things for other pirates, maybe with a few guest farmers here and there. If someone pressed me hard, I must admit I am a pirate.
Indeed, 2024 has proved an existential year for Bernal Cutlery, and we’re taking on the growth we always dreamed of. This includes manufacturing our own knives, collaborations with some of our beloved makers, and representing other small businesses we love and adore. At 20 years in, It feels like we’re just getting started, and the energy is up. When our shop was coming out of the pandemic, we were reimagining how we would operate and do business, how our idea of hospitality would be realized, and who we would build community with.
Today, as a founder, I experience a community growing up around us: our neighbors, our long-time patrons, cooks and tradespeople, our crew, and our international community, including producers of tools, food, and knife makers. The shop feels less like a thing that Josh and I have and more like what a community has. There’s a compelling living history to be read and celebrated in the areas where we source our knives. Additionally, it has been a dream once again to raise a flag for San Francisco’s stellar knife-making. There was a time when knives from San Francisco were known internationally. We’re so excited to take on the challenge and hope you will follow along.
Yuzukararin was Bernal Cutlery’s North Star
As Bernal Cutlery rolled out our post-shelter-in-place iteration, we committed to building a pantry program in our front foyer. Of course, this was a general business pivot like many of us were doing. I remember restaurants turned into grocery stores, and a local chef sold prepared food or chili crisps out of their trunks. But, starting a pantry was also a personal move that allowed for some fresh perspective on the joy of working with other small businesses and producers and trying something new. I love the intersection of small business and the hospitality industry for its agility, toughness, creativity, and pride, and I was compelled to align myself with them even more.
Our flagship pantry product and import that we led with, Yuzukararin, was introduced to our shelves in 2021 and holds a special place in my heart. It represented a pivotal moment for us, deciding not to throw in the towel as cynics while we witnessed many local small businesses closing up. Instead, we invested and hired a pantry program buyer just for this expansion, Gil Levy. I remember that Gil and Lisa, our purchasing development director, were just as wide-eyed as I was about introducing this fresh and vibrant addition and supporting its success here in the United States. This, of course, successfully ushered in a more articulated version of our pantry program, and it gave me some hope coming out of that depressed place with COVID. For me, Yuzukararin symbolizes our post-shelter-in-place era, where we shifted from a sole focus on survival and back to a primarily motivated and inspired way of doing business. Yuzukararin made its way into our business the same way you might describe its flavor profile, which is bright.
The Origin Story of Yuzukararin
The origin story of Yuzukararin, a Kochi prefecture product,, is very much in the same spirit as Bernal Cutlery's founding as a small business success story. The founder, Ms. Kazuko Yasuzawa, was making a career in insurance sales and found her footing in the spirit of hospitality. It is usually customary for agents in Japan to give candy to their clients, but she decided to be a little different and offer something spicy rather than sweet. She would hand out her yuzu-chili concoction as gifts to her clients, eventually creating what we know as Yuzukararin today. Ms. Yasuzawa saw an opportunity to develop what we know now as Yuzukararin into a sustainable business. At the time of her retirement from insurance, she started her own business selling this condiment. She would go to wholesalers to source the yuzu, chili, and salt, and hand-grate the yuzu one by one and grate the chili in a suribachi. She would dry-roast the chili in a large wok, and even when using gloves, the chili caused her hands to develop burns–so much that she could not take a bath at night, for it would hurt so much. Making one jar took her 3 hours. Her son told us of a story when she and her husband tried to make Yuzukararin take off in the early days, and it seemed so challenging that they cried while driving home from a tabling event where they barely sold anything.
They struggled at first, it seems quite a bit, but when Ms. Yasuzawa remarried, Yuzukararin truly became a family business with the heart of its production in Mihara. Mihara is a small village on the southwest coast of Kochi, with a population of 1300. It is known to be the town that takes the longest time to travel from Tokyo. With only one traffic light, Mihara has a common phrase to describe its beauty and charm, “There may be nothing here, but there is everything here.” It boasts being downriver from what is said to be Japan’s last remaining clear stream with big temperature differences during morning and night, creating excellent agricultural production for rice and tea and, of course,yuzu.
Yuzukararin’s main currency is in the potent aromatic green yuzu peel, magnified and deepened with a noticeable but not overwhelming heat and chili flavor. Josh first tried Yuzukararin while sourcing Tosa knives. Besides from being the home to Mihara Village, Kochi prefecture also hosts a unique knife-making tradition. Tosa’s knife making is known for its strong preference of making ryoba knives (double bevel vs kataba single bevel) meant for the cooks, farmers, fishermen, and hunters as a utilitarian with a down-home inaka (Japanese country) feel. These knives are well forged and heat-treated with top-quality steel and often minimalist finish grinding and handling. They are all about the best value for the money and don’t have much vanity or stiff formality.
Kochi is also known for its Sawachi cuisine, generosity, and community spirit. Sawachi is a feast that celebrates ‘okyaku’ – a word that in Kochi means more than just a 'guest'—and is all about sharing large platters artfully arranged, reflecting local produce, and celebrating community. This tradition started in the Edo period as a way for lords to show hospitality, bringing out a big spread all at once for all to enjoy.
So, as we approach the end of 2024, we’re planning Bernal Cutlery's future, and we see Yuzukararin at the table with our knife-making partners, crew, and collaborators, coming together with a big spread and a full heart. I’m so proud to share Bernal Cutlery’s platform with a woman-founded family business like Yuzukarain; inspired by her story and stellar product, I am honored she trusts us to represent her family company in the US.
