Pirate Cannerie

Lucie Lesgourgues trained at Ferrandi and spent years working in fine Parisian kitchens before her time at Rungis- France's vast wholesale food market- brought her face to face with the reality of industrial fishing: the waste, the overfishing, the fish that never reaches a plate. She chose a different direction entirely. 

In April 2022, Lucie started Pirate Cannerie alone, operating out of a former duck farm she took over in the Landes, a few kilometres from the fish auction in Ciboure on the Basque coast. Everything is done by hand- filleting, cooking, canning, sealing, sterilising- in small seasonal batches, with no additives and no shortcuts.

The sourcing is hyperlocal, super transparent and uncompromising. Mackerel and sardines come directly from small fishermen in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Tuna and Pyrenean trout arrive from Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry. Tacaud- a cod-family fish largely ignored by industrial processors- gets its moment too, as part of a deliberate effort to support lesser-known sustainable species. Nothing is imported. No fish travels far before it's in the tin. 

What makes Pirate Cannerie genuinely unusual is what Lucie does with the fish once she has it. Recipes shift with the seasons and the catch- Pyrenean trout with miso and ginger, Basque mackerel with gochujang, Atlantic octopus smoked over beechwood, albacore tuna belly braised in olive oil. Most cans are fully developed recipes that happen to be preserved in a tin- a format Lucie treats as a culinary medium rather than a compromise. 

The scale is small by design. Production is seasonal, batches are small and limited, and not every recipe is available year-round. Pirate Cannerie is a direct argument that the answer to industrial food waste isn't bigger systems- it's smaller, more considered ones.

What we love about Pirate Cannerie

I felll in love with the small batch, high quality creative concept first- and the transparency around where the fish and ingredients come from. Nothing is left to guess work- and as someone who fell in love with this region of Europe, I can still imagine the smell of the sea, and see Lucie roaming around picking the best of what the market has to offer.