Press and Reviews

“Surf Salt isn’t just your typical season-all. Though the distinctive salt flavors are the main component of the package, the salt itself is minimal in the product. So while salts are typically labeled unhealthy, Bain’s product is very much the opposite- a healthy additive to any dip, pasta, vegetable, salad, or meat”

– Lumina News, December 2010

Just a dollop, packs a wallop…Surf Salt

Surf Salt’s James Bain on Genki’s Masayuki Sugiura

Genki chef Sugi-San and Chef James Bain are seen at the sushi bar at Genki Japanese Restaurant Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Photo by Mike Spencer
Genki, 4724 New Centre Drive, No. 5

James Bain’s 1990s-era Harvest Moon restaurant helped launch a Wilmington fine-dining era. Busy family life has the dad of three taking a new path with his much heralded Surf Salt seasonig line.That‘s why chef Masayuki Sugiura of Genki moves Bain.

“His rice is perfect night after night because he is there every single night, never misses a service … His dedication, sharing, and passion, as well as being very humble, are all traits I look at in great chefs.”

Bain met soft-spoken Sugiura as a regular Genki customer, always asking questions about Japanese cooking. Generous Sugiura freely contributes information he has gained from a lifetime of travel and cooking.

Growing up in Yokohama, Japan, Sugiura helped in his parents’ kitchen. He went on to study geography and cultural anthropology but preferred travel and cooking. After working alongside chefs in various countries, Sugiura operated a revered restaurant for 10 years in Japan. He next came to Jacksonville, to help with a friend’s restaurant and wound up opening his own. Sugiura met wife Reiko there, and the pair traded Jacksonville for Wilmington.

Foodies consider 10-year-old Genki among the city’s finest Japanese restaurants; Bain thinks it’s the best, a proclamation that garners Sugiura’s signature wide grin. Kitchen work is not easy, but cooking comes naturally to the chef, his wife says.

“If I work, it should be my life’s work,” Sugiura explains. “If it is my life’s work, it is not so hard. It is my way.”