RAW: Oysters at home

The ridiculously easy, ridiculously tasty, dinner party hero that you've been sleeping on

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Welcome back to Like a Chef; lifting the lid on restaurant cooking for you at home.

This week, we’re kicking off our new RAW series. Throughout August we’ll be diving into our favourite no-cook dishes from the restaurants and give you the insider knowledge to execute them in your own kitchen, without a drop of sweat.

Today, we’re troubleshooting one of the least troublesome but most feared ingredients: oysters. With very little preparation but a promise of salty satisfaction; they’re easily one of the best things you can serve when it gets too hot to turn on the oven. We’ll show you how to store them, open them, and serve them — and, hopefully, convince you to start buying them.

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Thanks for joining us,

Jack & Will

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As a chef, there’s always a certain expectation when you are cooking for friends. However, as much as I love food, and I love my friends (and even love cooking for them some of the time); never is this a bigger pain in the hole than when you’re in the middle of a heatwave and you’ve had a dinner with friends in the calendar for a few weeks.

I’ll let you in on a secret: a lot of times, being a chef is about working hard— but in times like this it’s smart all the way. These are the times that I’ll ask myself: what produce can I use that requires me to do the least amount of work possible, where it just shines on its own? Minimal input for an output that will have everyone maximally impressed.

The answer is oysters. Every time. No exaggeration. The beauty of oysters is that they are ready to eat: all you have to do is open them. No planning, no prep, and almost no effort. But most people absolutely love them. They’re saline, silky, creamy and slightly sweet, and there’s something almost theatrical about eating one that I love. Picking one up in unison with your friends and cheersing, before it’s down the hatch in one satisfying swoop. In the restaurant, they’re flying out of the kitchen: the chef on the pass bellowing “6 more oysters,” then, barely a minute later, “and 2 lots of 12 after that”.

Oysters, 3 ways, at home.

So, here’s a question: if oysters are so well-loved, why is it that barely anyone eats them at home? Granted, they’re not cheap (though at around £1.50 a pop, i’d hazard they’re not much more than the other starter you had planned) — but that doesn’t seem to put people off of eating a nice lamb shoulder at Easter or treating themselves to a beef wellington at Christmas.

I think a big part of it actually just comes down to intimidation. I realised this when I went to a good friend’s house for a summer BBQ recently. They told me they’d gone to Moxton’s Fishmongers to get some good quality fish. They had a basket full of cod, sardines, and salmon, and as they walked past the oysters aisle they looked at each other: “Jack’s coming”. They took two boxes and put them in the trolley. I laughed as they recounted the story to me: “It’s just that we’d never think to shuck them ourselves”, they explained.

Oysters are actually really quite simple once you know how to open them. The most important thing is to have a shucker — I learned that the hard way in my early days as a chef, when an oyster had a fight with my very expensive japanese knife (and won). Once you’ve got yourself the right equipment (which, by the way, costs as little as a fiver - no ad) you just need to have the confidence that you know where to open it from and the patience to be gentle with separating the muscle from the shell.

The other reason a lot of people are put off oysters is that they come with a risk of food poisoning — as all raw food does. I’ve heard some people swear by an outdated ‘r’ rule that says you should only eat oysters in months that end in ‘r’. Before we had modern fridges, that made sense — who wants a lukewarm oyster? Luckily, we now have strict water monitoring and technological advances which mean that (as long as you get them from a reputable source) oysters are kept cold and are safe to be enjoyed all year round. I’ll say it again for the people in the back: Oysters are safe to eat at home!

As for me, you’d struggle to find an occasion I’ve hosted where oysters weren’t on the table — we even had them at my wedding. I got married in the South of France, and we had this beautiful U-shaped oyster bar with little stools around it. We splashed out on Oysters Gillardeau no.3, serving them with just a squeeze of lemon so as to not take away from the natural sweet, nutty flavour. It was a perfect day: tied the knot, ate some banging food, and won a shuck off contest against Will (naturally).

A very happy day topped off with my favourite oysters.

You might not be as oyster-afficionado as I to serve them at every important life event, but who knows — I might just convince you to stop neglecting them when you head to the fishmonger. If you have a shucker and a fridge, you’ll find their fresh brininess and ready-to-eat ease make oysters your dinner party go-to, especially during the summer months. And if you want something a little more (dare I say it) exciting than a simple squeeze of lemon, we’ve got 3 painfully easy, ridiculously tasty dressings to serve them with. What are you waiting for?