Inspired by the surrounding farm, forest and ocean, chef Paul Moran sources the bulk of his eight-course meals from the 47 acres of Central Saanich land he calls home.
In early 2025, Moran and his wife returned to Vancouver Island – they met while living in Tofino – settling on Sixty Forty Farm in Central Saanich.
Also a Top Chef Canada winner – season 7 in 2019 – Moran returned after a stint in Edmonton, where the couple moved three years ago for work. They always knew B.C. would be home again, and he was still doing work for the region remotely.
“I knew people on the Island and in southwestern B.C. were the type of people I wanted to cook for,” Moran said. A three-week trip to suss out potential sites included a first stop on the Island at Sixty Forty Farm, where his uncle was friends with the owner, and they were already farming together on the land known more than a decade ago as Marley Farm.
“When I left, I didn’t want to go anywhere else on the Island.”
In January, they returned. Now he’s cooking for dinners off-site, doing weddings and other events in people’s homes and venues, but also inviting people to the farm for public events a few times a year.
“We took over what used to be the winery building on the farm and turned it into an event space,” Moran said.
The name Sixty Forty originally meant a philosophy Moran follows, where cooking’s about 60 per cent ingredients, 40 per cent technique.
“I value the quality of a product more than how I can transform it in the kitchen. A great meal has to start with a great product,” he said. Once living on the Mount Newton X Road farm, he suddenly realized it also describes how he creates with 60 per cent of the ingredients he uses coming from the 40-plus acres around him.
Leaning into his five-generation history of fungi foraging, Moran also sources other things from the wild side of the acreage – and ingredients available from the other “cool farmers” in the area, turning it into a world-class meal.”
Square Root Farms, for example, has myriad acres of camus, garlic and cultivated wild plants from other parts of the country that thrive here.
“I feel like there’s always something to discover here,” Moran said.
The farm launches its first series of public events, catering to foodies looking for that special experience, at the end of May.
“I don’t think there’s any other spot you can have a menu like this out here on the Peninsula,” Moran said of the menu designed for people who are passionate about what they’re eating. “(The term) 'Foodies’ always leans towards people who are interested in the art of transforming food, but we also know and care about the holistic part of it.”
A lot of thought goes into both how the food will taste, but also how the diner will feel after each of the eight dishes.
“Essentially, a lot of the items we cook with I look at as super foods, especially all the wild foraged plants we put on the plate.”
Learn more or get on the farm mailing list at sixtyforty.ca.
