Jonah Souza

Jonah Souza
Jo McGarry photo

Where were you born and raised? Kahaluu, Kaneohe.

Do you have a food background? Not really, but kinda. My family always did catering and cooking, and my sister and brother-in-law started Fresh Catch on Waialae Avenue. My background is in entertainment. I was a promoter. I did concerts before I got into developing the sauces.

There must be some pretty good parties at your place. (laughs) Oh, yeah. Always good pupu, good poke, good music … yes.

What came first, Fresh Catch or the FC Sauces? The sauces were being made from scratch at the Waialae restaurant and everyone loved them. And then someone from Longs was eating there and told us we should try to bottle them. So we went through the process to bottle the original sauce, and then took them to Longs for a sampling. We sold 10 cases first try.

So, then I guess you went back, because there are a lot more sauces in Longs today … (laughs) Yeah, we bottled the salad dressing, and next time we went to Longs we sold 20 cases. Now there are eight different dressings and sauces – and they’re in nearly all the supermarkets: Foodland, Sack N Save, KTA on all islands … everywhere.

Where do you like to go out to eat? I’ll tell you, there’s not too many places in Kaneohe! (laughs) The Mai Tai Bar at Ala Moana early in the evening has real good local music. Not too many people know that. So we go there. And for sushi, I like Sasabune. Kinda expensive, though (laughs).

Do you cook at home? I do, but too busy right now. Although, with our sauces, all I have to really do is get some fresh fish from the auction, cut up some onion, add the sauce and we’re good to go.

What’s always in your fridge? FC sauces …

What’s next for you? We have a cookbook that’s just come out, Fresh Catch Savory Sauces, and we have our poke mix out, too. With eight sauces and all of that, we can hardly keep up with the bottling right now!