A shucking good time

Oyster shuckers convene for competition

Armed with just an oyster knife, nineteen of the finest shuckers girded themselves for shucking supremacy at the County’s oyster shucking competition, held at Sand and Pearl on Sunday. This was a collaborative effort between Flame+Smith and Sand and Pearl to showcase the skills of some of the restaurant workers, both here in the County and from oyster bars in Toronto and Kingston. “Oyster shuckers have a little bit of a sub-culture, and there are international competitions,” said Sarah Zomer from Flame+Smith. “We were talking to a few of our local oyster shuckers in Prince Edward County and we were saying, ‘You know what, we should host a competition.’ And here we are. We partnered with Sand and Pearl, and we are superexcited to do a PEC shucking competition.” Entrants from Hartley’s and Stella’s, as well as Sand and Pearl, competed against each other along with entrants from Rodney’s Oyster Bar in Toronto and a bar in Kingston. Each person was given a tray of 14 oysters, provided by Diana’s Seafood, and had to choose the perfect dozen for shucking. It’s a race against the clock, but there are also time penalties for things like grit in the oyster, broken shell or a punctured oyster. Two celebrity judges, Chef Jamie Kennedy and Chef Charlotte Langley, examined each plate of oysters, and the fastest eight entrants were seeded in the knockout round. Conner Grimes works at Hartley’s and has been shucking for three years. She didn’t make it to the knockout round, but said it was a fun experience. “I was kind of nervous, but I tried to calm myself down half-way through. But it seems like the oysters got the better of me today,” she said. “This is my first competition, and I wanted to find out how I compare. I was keeping my eyes peeled to everyone else on my line as I was shucking, trying to see what their technique was. The things I’ve learned from my fellow shuckers have given me positive things to bring to the next competition. You’re looking for a clean oyster and a good hinge, and when you are opening it you keep your knife along the top and detach it from the adductor muscle.”

The adrenalin was bumped up for the knockout round, where the competitors had to succeed or go home. Brooke Kotack, from Rodney’s in Toronto, was seeded sixth and she claimed victory in each of her three pairings against higher seeded opponents to be crowned as champion shucker.

That distinction came with a cash prize of $500 and a bottle of 18-year-old whisky. She was overjoyed with her win, coming on the heels of a top-five finish at the Tyne Valley Championships in PEI. “This is my first win. I’ve been shucking for three years under a lot of the big names like Eamon Clark and David Burns. This year I did really well, better than I thought I would at the Canadian championships in PEI, like top-five and I got cleanest plate, which I couldn’t believe,” she said. She works as a buyer and general manager at Rodney’s in Toronto. On a typical Friday or Saturday night the restaurant serves up around 3,000 oysters. “I only shuck when I’m needed. I’m not on the knife as much as I would like to be, and these competitions mean a lot to me.” She said the main thing is how cleanly you are presenting a plate of oysters. “As my good pal says, ‘Shuck a plate like you’re shucking it for the person you love most,’ you want them to eat the perfect oyster.” As a buyer, she works closely with the oyster farmers and says they work hard to bring their product to market. “It takes two to three years to bring a choice oyster to market size. These farmers are going out every couple of weeks, flipping millions of oysters, even in the wintertime. They are going through all this hard work, so the least we can do as shuckers is to make sure the oyster looks perfect. It’s respecting the oyster and its lifecycle and how much work is put into it by the farmer.”