Abu Dhabi: Anyone can eat oysters, but not everyone can open one. And it takes an oyster shucker champion a mere two minutes and 40 seconds to open 30 oysters.
Watch French chef Xavier Caille open oysters one after the other and you know shucking is an art in itself.
Caille was crowned the World Oyster Opening Champion at the Galway Oyster Festival in Ireland this year. “Oysters are easy to open. You need to be gentle with them,” Caille, 44, told XPRESS.
Coming from someone who has been practicing the art for nearly three decades, it is definitely a valuable piece of advice for seafood lovers.
The globe-trotting chef is currently in Abu Dhabi hosting an oyster festival at Finz, the award-winning seafood restaurant in the Beach Rotana Hotel. The festival is on till November 4. Caille said his affinity with oysters started 30 years ago when as a kid he was introduced to seafood by a chef at a popular restaurant in Paris.
“An oyster is like a drug for me. I am addicted to it,” says Caille.
He is hands-on when you ask him to teach you how to shuck an oyster without the shell flying off and landing on the next table.
What you need is an oyster or a shucking knife with a short blade. “Hold the knife with the finger close to the tip of the knife for a better grip. Jab gently at the hinge of the oyster and exert enough just force to penetrate the shell,” Caille explained.
As the shell detached slowly, he slid the blade further to make sure there were no remains sticking to the upper shell. “Practice and patience are important. Remember, it is an oyster, not a rock you have to break open,” Caille said.
