SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Customers at the Wildcat Cafe who paid $34 for a plate of Great Slave Lake pickerel this summer were actually chowing down on zander from Kazakhstan.

Wildcat Cafe operator Sato Chankasingh poses for a photo in the iconic restaurant Tuesday morning where he had been selling imported fish as if it were caught from Great Slave Lake. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo

It's something Sato Chankasingh, operator of the popular tourist attraction in Old Town, apologizes to customers for.

"I'd apologize to them and tell them it was a mistake on my part. I didn't look further and I should have,"said Chankasingh, who approached Yellowknifer for an interview after the issue was first reported by another media outlet this week.

Chankasingh said he believed he was getting Great Slave Lake pickerel from his supplier, Northern Foodservices, and was too busy to notice the labels on the boxes coming into the restaurant state "product of Kazakhstan."

"I've been in business since 1995. I take pride in what I do. I don't want people to think I'm cheaping out. I'm not," said Chankasingh, who has leased the restaurant space from the city since 2015.

Yet Roger Walker, general manager of Northern Foodservices, doesn't understand how Chankasingh wouldn't know what he was getting and said he ordered the same thing last year.

"He's been using it for two years, so I don't believe for a second that he didn't know what it was," Walker said in an interview.

Walker said Chankasingh had requested the company provide a quote for freshwater fish.

"The price was too high and so this other stuff was what was agreed on," Walker said.

Chankasingh said he placed an order in the spring with the supplier for 800 lbs of pickerel.

Chankasingh wasn't able to provide anything in writing showing he intended to order Great Slave Lake fish. The origin information was provided during a phone call, he said.

A screenshot of a text message with an employee of the supplier shows Chankasingh being asked to confirm an order of six to eight ounce fillets of pickerel with skin off for $12.75 per lb. The text doesn't state where the fish would originate.

"OK I'll get it," Chankasingh replied at the time. Invoices shown to Yellowknifer also don't state the origin of the fish but do call the product pickerel.

When the boxes arrived and he signed the bill, Chankasingh said he was too busy to take note that on the side it said the fish was actually pike perch, also called zander, and was not locally caught.

"We don't have time to do that," he said. "I didn't know about it, honestly. That's all I can say."

The label was brought to his attention a week or so ago by staff. He said he switched to another supplier shortly afterward to get Great Slave pickerel, though he refused to name the company.

He has yet to speak with someone from Northern Foodservices about what happened.

Chankasingh disputes a report that the fish he served from Kazakhstan can be purchased cheaper than Great Slave Lake pickerel. He said he wouldn't want to harm his reputation to save a few cents per pound of fish.

Two years ago, Yellowknifer reported how a local chef said the pickerel supply from Great Slave Lake wasn't consistent enough, so the chef imported zander from Kazakhstan (Chankasingh was not the chef).

At the time, a southern fish supplier said European pickerel was less expensive than pickerel caught locally, coming in around $4.25 to $5.25 per pound. Pickerel at Great Slave Fish Products Ltd. was being sold for about $15 per pound, if available.

Chankasingh said he's not sure if he wants to reapply for the lease for the city-owned building ends.

The lease is two years and is set to run out after the summer. Grant White, the director of community services, said the city will issue a request for proposals for the space early in 2017.

"We look for an operator for two years . that's a normal occurrence. We've been doing that for several years now," White said.

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