From Our Family To Yours

Bachan means grandma and my bachan means business

Hi. My name's Justin Gill, Bachan's founder and CEO. The recipe for Bachan's Japanese Barbecue Sauce has been passed down in my family for generations.

My bachan, Judy Yokoyama, was born in Sebastopol, CA in 1936. She spent her whole life here, except for a two-year displacement in a Japanese internment camp. There, the love and support that she sustained with her family - oftentimes over a shared meal - is what kept them strong and connected.

Bachan later taught our family's authentic Japanese barbecue sauce recipe to me and my parents, and now I get to share it with you as a way to celebrate my family's rich heritage and flavors.

Growing up, she used to cook for me and my family all of the time. She lived on the same property as us, so we would eat a lot of meals with her and my grandfather. Cooking with her made an impact on me because she was educating me on Japanese-American culture through food and passing down our family traditions all at the same time.

I worked with my family's landscape company throughout my childhood. This was where I first experienced how much people loved our sauce. During the holidays we would make a big batch of our sauce and I would go door to door with my dad to hand out bottles to our customers. Our customers were obsessed and I just knew there was something there.

A Tradition of
Bold, Fresh, Umami Flavor^™

Food has the power to connect generations – whether it’s learning grandma’s recipes and trying to make them just like her or the intense memories triggered by the flavors and aromas of our childhood. Moments shared over good food become traditions, memories, and stories that shape and inspire us.

Our Ingredients Matter^®

To stay true to our founder Justin’s original family recipe, we make our sauces in the way you would for your own family – in small batches with high quality, non-GMO ingredients. We also cold-fill our sauces—which eliminates any need for additives, preservatives, or flavorings. Our crave-worthy flavor comes naturally from delicious, clean ingredients.

Japanese Barbecue Sauces

We use organic garlic, ginger, and green onion and never use any kind of powdered or dehydraded ingredients.
Our premium Non-GMO Soy Sauce is brewed using traditional methods dating back hundreds of years.
Bachan's is made with real, high-quality mirin sourced from Japan. Mirin is a rice wine that is a key ingredient in many traditional Japanese sauces such as Bachan's. Bachan's mirin suppliers are family-owned and have been making mirin for generations in Japan.
The Organic Rice Vinegar we use to make our sauce is made with select organic rice grown in the US. It is brewed using a traditional method and aged for a month until it mellows so it brings balanced flavor to our sauces.

Japanese Dipping Sauces

(Neri Goma). Stone-ground, roasted sesame seeds that give our dipping sauces their thicker, richer, creamy texture.
(Suri Goma). Real crushed sesame seeds add a second type of sesame to create layers of deep flavor.
White miso is made from fermented rice and soybeans and is part of the sweet yet savory, mild yet umami flavor in our dipping sauces.
Real ginger adds a bright and zesty flavor.