Casanova's Fifty
Casanova claimed to eat fifty oysters every morning. The science is contested. The mythology is three thousand years old and reveals something true about the oyster as a cultural object.
The City That Ran on Oysters
Before the skyscrapers and the subway — New York was an oyster city. The largest natural beds in the world ran beneath its harbor. For two hundred years, the oyster was the food that built New York.
Ocean Luxury
Luxury in the shellfish world is not a function of price. It is a function of knowledge. On what ocean luxury actually means, and why its defining quality is always intelligence rather than expenditure.
The Vernissage and the Shell
From Delacroix's studio dinners to Art Basel Miami Beach — oysters have occupied a specific, recurring position in the social rituals of the art world. The connection is not arbitrary.
The After-Show Table
After a fashion show ends and the crowd moves to the reception, there is a grammar to what appears on the table. Oysters have been part of that grammar for as long as the contemporary fashion event has existed.
The Ritual of Service
The private shellfish service — a dozen selected, shucked, and presented to a guest who has been told something true about what they are eating. An account of what makes it perfect versus merely adequate.