Jay Poggi grew up with my daughters, the quintessential Southern coastal kid who spent lazy summer days on the end of a weathered pier. An artist in all areas of his life, he and I have shared the same challenge of how to fit into the rather provincial culture of our birthplace, yet at the same time love, embrace, and celebrate its beauty and special brand of crazy by expressing our own unique take on a life. I think we have both been considered weird or different at some point in our lives. Yet within this Gulf Coastal culture in the infamous South with it’s very complicated history, the appreciation and love of our cuisine has been the great equalizer and a place where we all come together.

It is with great pleasure that I step aside and let Jay, a consummate foodie, give his expert version of how to shuck a Gulf oyster:

1. Choose the oyster. Select it well. Rinse it down on the outside.

2. Stabilize the oyster in an oyster lead if you have one, or you can fashion blocks of wood to stabilize the oyster and keep it flat.

3. I like to go in through the hinge. Some people like to go in through the neck, which is the frilly end. You insert the knife into the hinge, the ambo and then you twist the blade which causes it to pop.

4. Then you insert the knife and cut the abductor muscle to free the oyster. Once you’ve cut the adductor, the top shell will be free for you to discard, leaving the mantle to eat… Deliciously.