Last week, Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board) hosted a Best Dressed Irish Oyster competition at Hix Oyster and Chop House in Farringdon. I tagged along for the chance to slurp down some especially delicious oysters and while having a look at how participating chefs went about dressing them up.
Chef, restaurateur and food writer (not to mention host venue owner) Mark Hix, food critic/restaurant writer Joe Warwick and chef, television personality and food writer Clodagh McKenna judged oysters presented by an impressive roster of competitors including chefs from Club Gascon, Wright Brothers, Bob Bob Ricard, Hix restaurants and more. And the winner was …
Shuck London
of Shuck, a London-based pop-up restaurant (with permanent residence coming soon), won with this gorgeous submission:
Grilled with a blowtorch, this oyster has an intense seaside flavour thanks to the seaweed butter with a gentle sweetness from the mustard and miso, balanced by the clean, tart ginger.
Wow.
Dressed up and fancily chef-ified or not, the Irish oysters I had during the event were delicious with an especially clean, ‘day at the beach’ freshness to their taste.
I hadn’t been to Hix in eons. It’s still a lovely setting. Despite being absolutely jammed with attendees grabbing at oysters and kicking back Champagne, staff maintained cordial grace and worked at a brisk pace to keep up with demand.
Hix Oyster & Chop House is located at 36-37, Greenhill Rents off Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BN. Find out more at hixoysterandchophouse.co.uk.
For more about Bord Bia and its mission to promote world class Irish food, drink and horticulture industry, go to bordbia.ie.
And for details about Simon Lamont and Shuck, follow @ShuckLDN on Twitter.
