-Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc., and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

A short drive from New Orleans, Plaquemines Parish offers a diverse variety of fishing, fresh seafood, rich history, and environmental activities in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ] -There's a new kid on Louisiana's oyster scene.

Alternative Oyster Culture, or AOC oysters, are breathing new life into a centuries-old industry.

This time on "Louisiana Coastal Cooking," we'll travel to Grand Isle, one of the prime spots for off-bottom oyster cultivation, to meet a pioneer in the state's new aquaculture industry.

Then, back in New Orleans, we'll sample dishes featuring the premium handpicked Gulf oysters.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Bright Side Oysters is a sustainable oyster farm located in the waters off Grand Isle.

Oyster farmer Nathan Herring grows oysters in the floating cages that produce small, perfectly shaped oysters without having to dredge the bottom.

He is assisted by Philip Piediscalzo -Traditional oyster harvesting, you're constantly dragging that big, heavy rake along the bottom, disturbing whatever's there in order to harvest the oysters.

For what I'm doing, we don't ever have to do that, you know?

We put two anchors in the ground, a rope between the anchors, and then you can tie off floating cages to the rope.

So when you go harvest, you just pull oysters out of the cages that you need.

Having them up off the bottom lets them grow really nicely.

They get more algae in the top couple inches of the water, more oxygen.

And that's, you know, kind of part of why they grow a little bit faster here than they do in other areas, because we have them floating.

We are so close to the Gulf here that we get pretty salty water pretty regularly.

So, I think generally the oysters that we grow here are a little bit saltier than in other areas of the state.

The oysters here have, like, sort of a like creamy chicken soup flavor.

But sometimes, yeah, they'll be a little bit sweeter throughout the year.

And some of that is just, you know, the oyster is preparing for different seasons.

-The majority of Louisiana Gulf Coast oysters are still harvested with a dredge, but off-bottom oysters are an opportunity to increase production in areas impacted by rising sea levels and coastal erosion.

Oyster farmer Jules Melancon, who passed away in 2023, was a pioneer in the off-bottom oyster industry.

The fourth-generation oysterman turned from traditional dredging to cage farming in response to changing environmental factors.

He was the first Louisiana native to receive an alternative oyster culture license, and his Grand Isle Oyster Farm became a top supplier to New Orleans restaurants.

-As far as the oyster harvest area, this is Area 13, and that's, like, a big area that produces really nice oysters.

I think the reason that you don't see a lot of Area 13 oysters is because there's not a lot of oyster reefs here anymore.

There's just not a lot of things for the oysters to attach to here.

Yeah, there's all kinds of reasons why there's not as many oysters here, but we grow them in a different way.

-With a degree in wildlife and fisheries and a focus in aquaculture, in 2018, Nathan applied for an AOC lease spot at the newly developed aquaculture park in Grand Isle.

While waiting for permits, he worked alongside established oyster farmers to learn the ropes.

The oyster harvest is a hands-on endeavor.

Oysters are selected by size.

Ones that are too small are returned to the floating enclosures, where they grow quickly and are protected from predators.

-I'm out here every week sorting.

I'm not going through all of the oysters that are on the farm every week, but you know, I'm out here constantly picking out the ones that are market size, putting those aside, putting back the ones that are too small.

So, we're sorting these oysters mostly for size.

But also, you know, the more you handle them, the better the oyster is going to look.

We're out here trying to work the oysters, make them as pretty as possible.

And part of the way that we do that is to break off the edges of the shell.

And we're doing that so that hopefully it grows back stronger, but also in a nice cupped shape, so that when you shuck the oyster, there's a little, you know, bowl kind of a thing for the oyster to sit in, and it holds the juice that the oyster has in the shell.

-Since starting his farm, the area has been hit by several major storms, including Zeta in 2020 and Ida, a Cat-5 hurricane that cut a path of destruction less than a year later.

During both those disasters, Nathan lost equipment and oysters.

-Probably three, like, pretty bad hurricanes since I started, and each one of those probably took at least half of the crop that I had in the water.

I lost my boat during Ida.

It was actually in a storage unit that was right over there, and the whole storage unit was pretty much gone.

The boat got swept out and never seen again.

So there's a good bit of risk.

And, you know, I think -- I think the reward is worth it.

-The waters around Bright Side are beginning to fill with other farms.

Nearly all the new operations are owned by young entrepreneurs.

There is a spirit of cooperation among the oyster growers.

-When I got here, I started helping other farmers after storms, and eventually one of them let me use part of his plot to get started in exchange for me, you know, helping him when I could.

You know, I think more leases potentially is more competition.

It's good for the water.

It's good for Louisiana.

-We head to New Orleans, to the home kitchen of Nathan Herring, where the oyster farmer prepares oysters with bayou verde mignonette, his take on a vinegar-based condiment traditionally served with raw oysters.

-We're going to make a mignonette-type sauce for raw oysters.

So, we'll mince shallots first and then we'll move on to the rest.

This goes well with the oysters.

The rice vinegar is kind of mild, but has a little bit of sweetness to it, and the fish sauce just adds a nice little kick to anything you add it to.

The crunch from the veggies is really nice.

Takes a little more effort than a regular mignonette, but I think it's worth it.

And then this is parsley.

So, we'll finely mince some of this.

I kind of try to do, like, equal parts of all the veggies.

I like to add just a little bit of the stem just for that extra little crunch.

Just make sure you chop it real fine.

A little bit of cilantro.

And again, some of the stems, as well.

♪♪ So, I just did a big oyster event in New York called Billion Oyster Project.

Their goal is to plant a billion oysters in New York Harbor to help rehabilitate the waterways and bring oyster populations back to New York Harbor.

That organization is really what kind of got me interested in oyster farming.

And that was really where I learned and where it really, like, sunk in how good oysters are for the environment.

-The Billion Oyster Project builds reefs and oyster nurseries across New York Harbor, with a goal to install a billion oysters by 2035.

-The neat thing about the Billion Oyster Project is that they're, you know -- they're just a nonprofit.

It's not like a state-run organization.

Chesapeake Bay has a lot of that going on and have for a long time.

I mean, I feel like there's always something to learn from another farmer, and you can learn about new ways to grow oysters.

And then I like to do half of a lemon and half of a lime.

In, I think junior high, there was auditions for, like, drama club.

And my audition, for whatever reason, I decided to do a cooking show.

[ Laughs ] I didn't make it.

I didn't get the callback.

But little did I know...

So, I have seasoned and unseasoned rice vinegar, equal parts of each of those.

A big part of this recipe, for me anyway, is just the crunch of the veggies.

And then a little bit of fish sauce, as well.

And then it can just marinate for a little while while you're shucking your oysters.

I like to put down a little bit of coarse salt just so that it holds the oyster in place, keeps it upright so it doesn't lose all the juices out of the shell.

Keeps it looking nice, too.

These oysters have kind of a flat top and a rounded bottom.

And then this more pointed side is the hinge where the oyster opens and closes.

And it's got a muscle.

It's one right there, and then one that connects to the bottom right there.

And that's what it actually uses to hold the shell closed.

So, you got to get your knife in the hinge, and once you get it kind of wiggled in, then you can twist to pop it open to break the hinge.

And then you got to cut both of those muscles off of the shell.

I like to use a thinner-blade knife with a little bit of a point like this.

It just helps get in the hinge a little bit easier.

So, here we have a plate of freshly shucked oysters from Grand Isle, Louisiana, with a bayou verde sauce.

And, hope you enjoy.

Whenever I traveled, you know, when I was getting started, I would always, like, try to find an oyster farm close by.

So I went to oyster farms in Florida and Alabama and Mississippi and just saw how they were doing it.

And then it's just trial and error from that point.

You know, you just have to keep trying and figure out what works for you.

So, yeah, you can get as theoretical as you want and you can have this huge plan, but, you know, until you actually get out there and do it in the water, you don't know if it's going to work.

So you just kind of got to get out there and then adjust from there.

So you have to stay, like, pretty flexible.

-"Keep it simple" is Nathan's advice for serving fresh oysters, like his recipe for grilled oysters with hot garlic butter.

-So, we're going to make the sauce for the grilled oysters.

And it's just real simple.

It's garlic, parsley, hot sauce, butter.

And then we got a dozen and a half oysters here.

And as far as the oysters go, I like to dump out a little bit of the juice from the oysters.

So, that way, they'll soak up the butter and the sauce a little bit better.

We're just mixing all this together, and we're going to throw it on the grill for 8 to 10 minutes until the butter is a little caramelized.

The oyster really doesn't have to cook much.

If it's nasty out, I'll bake them.

Or if I just don't feel like dealing with the grill, I'll bake them.

So, I bought a pizza oven, and that actually works great.

I think you just keep it simple.

I mean, even just butter and garlic on top of the oysters is pretty good.

Kind of let the oysters shine through a little bit.

I do a pretty good bit of garlic for this.

This, I think, was five cloves.

Let's say, for this amount, I'll do about a third of a bunch of parsley.

Alright, and then I'm going to add some hot sauce.

But, yeah, I like to use a Mexican hot sauce.

Alright.

And there we go.

And then I like to just load the oysters up with the butter before I take them out to the grill.

That way you're not having to put the butter on over a hot fire.

Alright, these are ready to be taken to the grill here.

I'll grab the Parmesan and we'll head out that way.

Alright, we're gonna put these on.

I like to do them kind of in line with the grate so they stay standing up just a little bit.

You could do this with tongs, which I will use when the oysters are hot, for sure.

Alright.

There we go.

I'm just gonna dust them with a little Parmesan, then I'll put the top on for a few minutes.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, now just put the top back on for a few minutes, just to get a little bit of smoke smell.

Leave it like that, and we'll check on it here in just a second.

We're going to take a look at them and just see how they're coming along.

Oh, yeah.

Kind of just looking for a little bit of caramelization, a little...

This one's probably about done there.

You can see the Parmesan's already cooked up pretty good.

Move some of them around, get them to the heat.

Usually it takes a little longer, but this fire is just really hot.

♪♪ Alright, last one.

And we are ready to eat.

-Our final stop is Pêche Seafood Grill in New Orleans' Warehouse District, for a sit-down with Executive Chef Ryan Prewitt, who works with local organizations to promote sustainable fishing practices in the region.

The James Beard-winning chef says the mission of Pêche is to shine a light on Gulf seafood.

-It was important to all of us that oysters play a big role in the sort of identity of the restaurant.

At that point, I realized that we really could build an oyster bar around the idea of showcasing different oysters from different areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

So, we have Area 3 dredged oysters, the classic Louisiana bottom-farmed oyster.

It is the sort of standard that a lot of people look to when they're thinking about Louisiana oysters.

Then we have the Bright Sides, which are an off-bottom oyster farmed in Grand Isle.

So, you have two different Louisiana oysters, slightly different bodies of water, different farming methods, dramatically different in results.

Both good in their own way.

-The restaurant also sources off-bottom oysters from Alabama and Florida, which have their own distinctive flavor.

-We're serving Little Honeys from Florida.

They're farmed in Apalachee Bay.

Jody, the woman that runs the farm, is an incredible personality and a real driving force for the off-bottom oyster industry in that area.

With Nathan's oysters down at Bright Side, he's going to get variability depending on the height of the river and the direction of the wind, and so his oysters are going to exist in their own ecosystem.

And then if you move down the coast to Oyster Bay and Apalachee Bay, where the Little Honeys are from, they're going to have a totally different profile, and they're also going to have a different input from the grower.

One may tumble the oysters more often than the other, resulting in a deeper cup.

One may be in an area that's gotten a lot of rain, which may make the oysters a little sweeter.

So, all of these things combined, they all tell a story of the location that they were grown in and the people that grew them.

-For oyster shuckers, there's a learning curve to opening the off-bottom oysters.

-The dredged oysters -- much thicker shells, right?

So, these guys have to fight against the elements and battle it out on the floor of the Gulf, so they're a lot heavier, a lot thicker shells.

There's a lot of sort of, like, force that goes into that, whereas a more delicate off-bottom oyster might require a little bit more finesse.

-The alternative oyster culture is a way to diversify the Louisiana oyster industry and increase production.

-Off-bottom oyster aquaculture is really almost an anomaly in the seafood world these days, and the reason for that is pretty simple.

As a sort of younger person, the barrier to entry is dramatically lower.

15 years ago, this didn't really exist.

There were a few sort of test farms going on, but nothing on a commercial scale.

Fast-forward to today, and there's new farms opening up all the time.

It's been very educational to be involved in the seafood world like this, and I've really tried in the last couple years to sort of step outside of the restaurant perspective and start to look at it in a more holistic perspective.

So, I think that I do try to bring an overall sense of optimism to the future of the seafood industry.

The sort of most difficult things on the horizon are all related to climate change, land loss, how those are going to affect all of these industries.

But, you know, I think that the oyster industry in particular is a real bright, shining light.

-For our final dish, we head to the Pêche kitchen for fried oyster salad prepared by Chef de Cuisine Nicole Mills.

Chef Nicole, who was born and raised in the Philippines, incorporates Filipino notes into the salad starring Gulf oysters.

-Okay, so here we're going to be making a fried oyster salad.

So, it's a set that we typically change seasonally.

And the things available are corn, arugula, so we're laying heavily down on those produce.

Gulf oysters are available year-round here in Louisiana, which is lovely.

So, essentially, we're just kind of switching around the sets.

Our last set, sometimes it's a bigger salad, sometimes it's a smaller salad.

It really depends.

But, in essence, it's really more about the oysters itself.

So, I have here some really lovely arugula.

We get this from one of our farmers.

They're out of Picayune, Mississippi.

So, they provide the restaurant with all of our mixed greens, all of our arugula.

They're all organic and beautifully grown.

And it's a nice little, light salad, nice peppery flavor to it.

I'm going to add a little bit of toasted pepitas, a little bit of cucumber, and then a little bit of cheese.

Like I said, this is a pretty simple, simple preparation.

It's a nice kind of light dish.

A little bit of extra virgin olive oil, some lemon juice, and some pickled corn.

I had mentioned, you know, corn in season right now.

So, we pickled this with some chilies and shallots, a little bit of chili flakes, and some cider vinegar.

We like a lot of pickles here.

Like, we pickle almost anything that we can pickle.

And I'm gonna add a little bit of salt.

And then on the plate, I'm gonna put this kimchi aioli.

It's a green onion kimchi aioli.

So, right now, aside from all of the greens available, it's also green onion season.

Everybody's growing green onions.

So we cut up the green onions, we let it sit in a mixture of salt and sugar and let all the liquid leach out, and then we marinate it in, like, a kimchi base, which is a mix of chili flakes, Korean peppers, and some fish sauce, a little bit of ginger and garlic, and all of that kind of marinates together.

And once that settles, then we puree that with some rice vinegar and we make an aioli out of it.

And it's really nice and flavorful, very umami flavors.

So, I'm gonna put this around.

And we're gonna mix the salad.

So, I'm putting Grana cheese, and you can use, like, Parmesan or really any, like, sharp cheese is nice to go with it.

And then here I have the oysters.

So, as you can see, Gulf oysters usually tend to be on the bigger side, which makes it nice for frying and cooking preparations.

We smoke them, make an aioli out of it.

We grill them sometimes.

We cook it in gumbo.

Obviously, we serve fresh oysters, and then also, we fry oysters.

So, we try to think of kind of fun, different ways to use them.

I've also made oyster sauce out of it, which is a little bit labor-intensive, but it's really nice.

This is just a very simple dredge of cornmeal and flour.

We don't really put anything special to it.

It's very, very simple.

Okay.

So, we have our oysters.

We're using -- we usually use peanut oil.

It's great for frying, doesn't impart very much flavor.

350 degrees.

You know, when you're frying oysters, you want to make sure that you're not overcooking it.

It really doesn't take very long.

So, we're really just looking to get them crispy on the outside, but not completely dry.

We want to make sure they're still soft and tender in the middle.

And right about there is what you're looking at.

Looks pretty good.

Okay, so, as soon as they come out of the fryer, we want to very liberally salt them.

And it's just going to -- it's going to go over the sauce.

Very, very simple.

And then I'm going to serve it with a little lemon wedge on the side.

And that's it.

-Off-bottom oysters play a small role in Louisiana's oyster business and are unlikely to replace traditional reef harvesting, which accounts for 40% of the oysters grown in the U.S.

But as the oyster industry contends with climate change and coastal land loss, AOC oysters are making a positive impact.

With their contribution to the health and prosperity of marine environments, the state's new oyster farmers are a sign of hope for the future.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -You can find recipes for all of the dishes in this series, chef profiles, and more information about Louisiana coastal cooking by visiting wyes.org.

Funding for "Louisiana coastal cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc., and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

Nature, tradition, and culture come together in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi River and the Gulf meet in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ] ♪♪