The Toronto founders who couldn't find clean Japanese chili oil in Canada, so they made the best version in North America

From a Tokyo kitchen habit to a Toronto farmers' market

Jess Mantell spent time living in Tokyo, where onigiri — Japanese rice balls — are the definitive on-the-go food. Clean, substantial, everywhere. When she came back to Canada, nothing filled the same role. So she started making them herself and selling them at Toronto farmers' markets, alongside her partner Fumi Tsukamoto.

The rice balls needed a condiment. The obvious choice was chili oil, a Japanese pantry staple that Jess and Fumi both knew well. But every version they could find in Canada either came with the wrong flavour profile or contained a list of additives they didn't want: preservatives, MSG, stabilizers. The authentic Japanese products imported for grocery shelves were made to survive a shipping container, not to taste like something handmade.

So they made their own. They called it OKAZU, the Japanese word for a side dish meant to be eaten alongside rice. It was meant to accompany the onigiri. The customers kept asking where they could buy the OKAZU on its own, without the rice ball. By 2013, Abokichi was a condiment company.

What OKAZU actually is

OKAZU is a Taberu Rayu: a Japanese condiment style built on a fermented miso and sesame oil base, with chili, garlic, and spices. Taberu Rayu means roughly “eating chili oil” — a chili oil made to be consumed in quantity, not just drizzled. The miso base gives it a deeper, more complex umami character than a standard chili crisp, which typically uses a fermented black bean foundation.

Three flavours make up the current lineup at abokichi.com: the original Chili Miso, which is the versatile everyday version; Curry Miso, which adds warm curry spice to the miso base; and Spicy Chili, which pushes the heat further for people who want a more aggressive burn. All three use the same foundational commitment: no preservatives, no MSG, no stabilizers. Made in small batches in Toronto, not manufactured at scale for export.

The use case is genuinely broad. On eggs, on ramen, on grilled chicken, on rice, on avocado toast, stirred into pasta, used as a marinade. The reason so many cooks who find OKAZU end up buying it again is that it works on things you already cook rather than requiring a specific recipe to justify its existence.

“We wanted to add chili oil to our onigiri but realized the products shipped from Japan usually contain a lot of chemicals such as preservatives, MSG and stabilizers. So we decided to make our original all natural OKAZU condiment.”

The sofi Gold and what it meant

In 2020, OKAZU won the Gold Award at the sofi Awards in the marinades, dressings, and condiments category. The sofi Awards are run by the Specialty Food Association in the United States and are considered the highest honour in the specialty food industry. That year, approximately 1,800 products competed in the condiment category. OKAZU won.

The significance of the win was not just the recognition. It was the kind of third-party validation that a small Canadian brand could not manufacture. The Specialty Food Association judges blind: they do not know who made the product, where it came from, or what the brand story is. OKAZU won on the merits of what was in the jar.

The award also confirmed what the farmers' market customers had been saying for years: that OKAZU was the best version of its category that most people had ever tasted. Not the most convenient, not the most available, not the cheapest. The best.

Dragon's Den and the press that followed

Abokichi appeared on CBC's Dragon's Den, which brought the brand to a national audience beyond the specialty food world. Combined with the sofi Gold and a growing press footprint, the exposure cemented OKAZU as a brand that both serious food media and mainstream outlets wanted to cover.

The coverage that followed reached into publications that rarely profile a small Canadian condiment company. The New York Times. USA Today. The Globe and Mail. Global News. Chatelaine. Toronto Life. CBC. The National Post. Edible Toronto. Canadian Living. That kind of press accumulation does not happen for a product that is merely good. It happens for a product that has a clear story, a genuine difference from what is already on the shelf, and founders who can explain exactly why they made it.

What the press is saying

Where to actually buy OKAZU

Each link below goes directly to the OKAZU product page on that retailer's site, so you can find the right flavour without hunting:

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

OKAZU is the rare small-batch condiment that has earned every claim it makes. The product is genuinely better than the imports it replaced. The founders made it because they needed it, not because they saw a market gap in a spreadsheet. The sofi Gold is a real award adjudicated by people who know the category. The press is legitimate. And after more than a decade of building the brand without shortcuts, Abokichi has produced something that belongs on every serious kitchen shelf in Canada.

You can order directly from abokichi.com, where all three flavours ship across Canada.