SLIP ’N’ SLIDE

It’s native oyster season and London’s chefs know the best ones to shuck and chuck, says Joanna Taylor

If you’ve ever asked a waiter the difference between the oysters on a menu and nodded politely while their answer trickles in one ear and out the other, this one’s for you. The first thing you need to know is that there are two main categories in the UK. The most prevalent is the Pacific, also known as the ‘rock’ oyster. Due to their hardy nature, these are farmed year round and harvested at between 18 to 36 months of age. The other type are native oysters, a more delicate, seasonal species (you guessed it) native to the UK. Due to overfishing in the 1960s, these can only be legally harvested from September to April, and the fragile, flatter creatures take around four to five years to be ready, making them much rarer on menus.

Around town, chefs are now plucking their favourite natives from Great Britain’s shores and plonking them on their menus. At 28-50 Wine Workshop & Kitchen, Julien Baris favours ‘crisp green wood and cucumber flavoured’ Jerseys, while at Frank’s bar

Matt Ryle serves a hyper-rare native Pembrokeshire Atlantic Edge, which he says has a ‘tangy minerality balanced with an earthy salinity; similar to a peppery watercress’. At Bar Crispin, founder Dominic Hamdy prefers the ‘salty, meaty native Mersea’ type, which tastes distinctly of the sea and has a subtly earthy and metallic finish, and Robin Gill of Darby’s opts for Loch Ryans, ‘which have a plump and almost crisp bite, with a nutty and salty kick’. And finally, at Corrigan’s Mayfair Richard Corrigan prefers Royal Whitstable natives, which he says have ‘a gloriously mineral flavour suited to connoisseurs rather than first-timers, as the flavour is far more intense’. Bottoms up!