DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Steve Shiraishi, right, his wife Joni and son Hunter, 10, check on a rack of fish to be cut up and processed at their smoking operation at Norpac Fisheries.

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Smokin’!

A family smokehouse
is ready for the big time
-- national distribution of its
smoked fish and seafood

Standing at the door of a stainless-steel contraption that looks like a transporter straight out of the "Back to the Future" films, Capt. Steve Shiraishi warns: "Stand back, this is going to let out a lot of steam."

No warning necessary. Machines, heat and I don't go together.

Haleiwa Smokehouse Tastings: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at Foodland Beretania

The door opens with what amounts to more of a puff than cloud of smoke, but Shiraishi and his 10-year-old son Hunter speed into action. With gloves on, they pull out a rolling rack of trays covered with neatly arranged rows of culinary gold -- smoked fillets of ahi, opah, swordfish, salmon, ono and the piece de resistance, ginger-brined medallions of succulent and supple scallops.

Opening a panel at the side of the contraption -- a vertical smoker designed by a hospital airflow specialist who happened to be the father of one of Shiraishi's friends -- Shiraishi's wife Joni shows a circuit board that would rival any Big Blue monster computer.

"This is not your usual backyard smoker," Capt. Steve says, proudly stating the obvious. He should know. Twenty-five years ago, he was a typical backyard smoker. Today, he's poised to take his smoked delicacies national.

Shiraishi recently returned from the 23rd-annual International Boston Seafood Show, an event drawing thousands of seafood professionals, where his gourmet products were featured as one of 18 "Best New Food Products of 2005," drawing rave reviews from chefs and seafood distributors from around the world.

Many had been wondering where Shiraishi had disappeared to since he closed his Haleiwa Smokehouse operations at Waialua Sugar Mill. For a time, he operated a catering truck offering his packaged products, as well as smoked seafood plates and salads. But he stopped because he had bigger plans, overseeing development of a processing plant at the Norpac Fisheries' site in Kalihi.

Shiraishi also participated in the Kapiolani Farmers Market for a short time, gaining new fans who had been reluctant to go west to find him, no doubt whetting appetites for his supermarket debut.

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Steve and Hunter Shiraishi pull racks of freshly smoked fish from their stainless-steel vertical smoker.

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SHIRAISHI'S COME a long way since he joined the ranks of commercial fishermen at 16 (later becoming a Coast Guard licensed captain). Now 53, he turned to backyard smoking about 25 years ago to deal with excess catch, sharing his bounty with friends and family. His smoked fish also became Christmas and special-occasion gifts. Tasters suggested he try to market.

That led to setting up shop as Haleiwa Smokehouse at the Waialua Sugar Mill in 2001. He prepared and packed his smoked specialties to go, mostly for tourists and hardcore foodies who would go anywhere for a taste of something delicious.

As successful as the Smokehouse was, Shiraishi still felt like a small fish and that he had a hit of a magnitude he would not be able to measure unless he could net a wider audience. But that was easier said than done, due to all the legal requirements of the food-processing industry. And so began an odyssey that would have stopped many a would-be entrepreneur.

"As soon as I got serious, I started inquiring about what it takes. My wife is in real estate, so I knew that to have a smoker you have to be on an industrial-zoned property. And the Board of Health has its regulations.

"I've been a bartender, and been in the restaurant business off and on, so my knowledge of managing kitchens helped. I knew about working with the Board of Health, the feds. For instance, not many know about the 40-degree rule. That's the core temperature of the fish -- basically, if you have a refrigerated product, you have to be in a refrigerator (preparing it)."

There were cost issues as well, associated with a perishable product, of which one could say 75 percent went up in smoke.

"Everytime you cut fish, you lose 50 percent," Shiraishi explained. "When you smoke it, you lose another 50 percent."

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hunter, left, and Steve Shiraishi hold a 100-pound ahi bound for smoking. Steve Shiraishi says the larger the ahi, the higher the fat content, which is better for smoking.

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Running Haleiwa Smokehouse left Shiraishi with no time to return to the ocean, so he had been buying his fish from Norpac's Tom Kraft and the two had talked about partnering, but the timing wasn't right, until now.

"We'd gotten about as big as we could on our own," Shiraishi said, and it was running his family, including 15-year-old daughter Lauren, ragged. "It took the whole family working seven days a week, night and day."

Teaming with Norpac freed him from typical business headaches.

"Now I just have to worry about the product. I don't have to deal with the books, the accounting or HACCP," Shiraishi said, referring to the strict Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point regulations ensuring food safety from the moment a fish is caught to the time it reaches the marketplace.

"That meant I was ready for the barrage of inspectors. For a mom-and-pop operator to afford to do it all -- it's so hard," he sighed.

"Since 9/11 there's been a lot more food inspections," said Kraft, who said he never knows when an inspector from the USDC, USDA, FDA or state Board of Health will walk into his Kalihi plant. To ensure the facility is up to code, Norpac contracts a private lab to conduct an annual review of the plant. It's that kind of integrity that has earned the company a foothold into some of the finest restaurants in the nation, from Napa Valley to Las Vegas to Manhattan. And that is where Shiraishi wants to be.

"We should be in restaurants. We want them to incorporate our fish in salads or to eat with a fine meal -- not just in the back yard with a six-pack. That's good too, but we want to take it to the next level.

"If I entered Sam Choy's poke contest, I would win that contest," he said with a confident laugh, before adding his rationale for not entering: "But I want other people to have a chance."

THAT DAY WILL come, but for now, there's still much work to be done, and first priority is getting Haleiwa Smokehouse into supermarkets. So far so good. Shiraishi's products can be found at Foodland and Daiei for about $5.50 per quarter pound. He's also talking to representatives from Costco and Whole Foods.

Partnering with Norpac doesn't mean Shiraishi can take it easy. Where in the beginning, smoking in Haleiwa was a 'round-the-clock operation, he's down to working 18-hour days.

"Preparing the fish is a big process. It takes 10 to 12 hours to cut the fish, cook the brine and smoke the fish (from batches soaked in brine for 48 hours). It takes another eight hours to clean up."

Shiraishi lives in Mokuleia and must leave his home at midnight to start the smoking process, so the finished product will be on trucks heading to stores by 7 a.m.

Building his business has meant giving up his first love of fishing, but his love of family has taken over, as well as his love of his product, which becomes obvious in just a minute of conversation.

"I miss fishing, but my commercial days are over. What really stopped me was my family. When my kids were young, I'd go up to French Frigate Shoals for 12- to 15-day trips. When I came back, my kids wouldn't recognize me. Now I take the kids out trolling and fishing at the buoys.

"Everything I did, I did in a round-about way, but it all worked out," he said. "Probably what kept me going this whole time is making a product that I'm proud of and creating a Haleiwa Smokehouse that never existed."