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Around Town

Shucking oysters in Old Town

By Beth Potter
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 26th, 2008 issue

Frank Haughton calls it his “conversation starter” to get people in the Czech and Irish communities talking to each other when he puts on an annual oyster-shucking contest in a landlocked country.

It’s the crowning event of an Irish festival he holds every year around St. Patrick’s Day on Old Town Square.
At this year’s competition, which took place Sunday, March 23, the buzz was all about which chef would be the best shucking machine.
Defending champ Václav Frič, from the Prague Culinary Institute, managed to complete the shucking and presentation tasks in a lightning-fast 1 minute, 39 seconds. As a reward, he won a plane ticket to Galway, Ireland, to compete in the most well-known Irish festival in the world in September.
There were also some informal bets made among folks in the enthusiastic crowd about the number of oysters that would end up on the ground. Instead, it appeared that all the slippery little fellas made quick trips to people’s stomachs. Chefs walked off the stage to present their tasty prizes (slices of lemon included) to eager eaters who nearly matched the speed of the shucking teams, downing them in five minutes flat without devolving into a brawl.
The judge for this year’s contest was Brian Burke, the reigning world oyster-shucking champion, who kept a close eye on the proceedings, especially the presentation. For the first time ever, every chef managed to finish in less than three minutes — the benchmark of professionals, according to Burke.
Most importantly, the event was, as Haughton put it, “just a bit of fun.” The Irishman is the owner of Caffrey’s, an Irish mainstay in the heart of Old Town better known for its beer than oysters, but always a convivial place to hang out.
Haughton was on fine form Sunday, blessing the crowd with an Irish ditty and encouraging Czech women to find nice Irish men, insisting that they have “have more stamina.” (Oysters being a supposed aphrodisiac, after all.)
When all was said and done, it was a bit of Irish sophistication on a blustery Sunday. The 24 chefs were all dressed in their best, each armed with a bottle of Jameson’s and a plate of oysters still in their shells. The square was bustling, despite the weather, with hundreds in the crowd hustling into Caffrey’s afterward for some liquid warm-ups.
And the free oysters seemed to whet the crowd’s appetite for the musical entertainment, which included a U2 revival band from Ireland.
So what do oysters have to do with the Emerald Isle? Galway Bay is home to one of the most famous oyster beds in the world, and Haughton said he’s just trying to spread the word.
Four-time competitor Piere-Manuel Boels, owner of Fjord Bohemia, which imports about 150 tons of fish into the Czech Republic every week, said he sees the contest as “a wonderful opportunity for cultural change toward positive competition.”
It’s obviously pretty “special and unique” to focus on oyster presentation in a country with a tradition of eating carp, said Pavel Gusyev, who has competed in the event five times.
Irish Ambassador to the Czech Republic Donal Hamill put an official imprimatur on the proceedings by opening the event. And Haughton had a final comment to keep it all in perspective.
“Winning or losing is not the greatest criterion,” he said. “This is a positive for everybody.”
— Brian Reagan contributed to this report.

Beth Potter can be reached at bpotter@praguepost.com


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