In the Kitchen With: Chef Austin Sumrall
“Oysters are more than just a food; they’re an experience.” Chef Austin Sumrall, owner of Biloxi, Mississippi’s lauded White Pillars restaurant, speaks the truth; it’s pretty easy to prove the validity of his oyster opinion. Most folks remember eating their first oyster, especially their first raw oyster. Not nearly as many remember their introduction to grilled chicken or a fish taco.
While Sumrall now considers oysters much more than part of a meal – “It’s a specific activity for me, as is ‘Let’s go eat oysters tonight!’” – he was an adult before he felt called to throw back an oyster on the half shell. “I grew up around oysters; my dad and grandparents were always big oyster eaters,” he says, “but I was slow to get on raw oyster train. I was probably in college before I realized that raw oysters were delicious.” And then he was hooked. “I started seeking them out anywhere I was,” he says.
One oyster experience stands out from the early days of his culinary career. He’d just started working for chef John Currence in Oxford, Mississippi, and was hanging out at Snackbar. “I was sitting there with a friend, and the bar tender brought us two dozen oysters that some table didn’t want for some reason. We were like, ‘I don’t know if we can eat all those.’ And then, a split second later, they were gone,” he says. “I’m pretty sure those were my first farmed oysters, and that memory is still so strong. Both the flavor and just the feeling of that moment.”
That encounter anchored Sumrall’s love of oyster aquaculture, an affection that’s only grown as the industry begins to flourish in waters close to home. “When we started White Pillars, we were getting a lot of Alabama farmed oysters cause they’re great, and I got to know those guys, like Murder Point, from my time at Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham,” he says.
He kept hearing rumors about some oyster farming in Mississippi, but he was skeptical. “I wanted that to happen but didn’t get too excited until it really happened,” he says. He then got involved, sitting on a panel for some of the first oyster farming classes put on by Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. “It was so cool to be a part of that, and now to have farmed oysters right here, I love it. I’ve really hit it off with the French Hermit Oyster Co. guys, and I try to keep them on the menu as often as possible.”
Sumrall’s commitment to seasonal and fresh means local always wins in his kitchen, and oysters still wet from the Gulf when they’re delivered can’t be beat. “That’s something else that makes oysters and farmed oysters special. They mirror where they come from. You can get a taste of that place in just a bite,” he says.
Oh, Shuck
Sumrall has some strong and fond oyster memories, but one is little more stressful than the rest. “I learned how to properly shuck oysters in one of the first, hands-on kitchen classes in culinary school, but I didn’t do a lot of it,” he says. “Then, I was working at Cochon in New Orleans, and we got a ton of oysters in. The chef and owner was like, ‘Can you shuck?’ and I instantly said yes, even though at that point I’d shucked like a couple dozen in my life, total. He pointed to all these oysters, and said, ‘You’re in charge.” I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ We shucked them to order, and sold them all, so it was a lot, a real trial by fire. But I did it.”
Biloxi Hot Oysters
When we serve our local farm raised oysters (such as French Hermit) in the restaurant, we try to do as little as possible to them. We offer them on the half shell with just a few mignonette options, house-made hot sauce and lemons. But as a way to introduce people to oysters who may not eat them like that, we have come up with a few recipes that still highlight the oyster, while at the same time making them more appealing to the masses. This oyster is fried (probably the easiest way to sell them), but it is important that it is lightly fried. Over-frying will ruin any delicious oysters.
1 dozen of your favorite shell oysters
For the Dredge
Wet
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon hot sauce
Dry
1 cup AP flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup corn flour or masa
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
pinch of cayene
“Hot Sauce”
2 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup hot frying oil reserved
Alabama White Sauce
1/2 cup home-made aioli, favorite mayo, or Duke's, etc.
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish - diced dill pickles
Shuck your oysters. Reserve shells to serve in. Mix together wet ingredients of dredge and drop shucked oysters in. Heat your fryer to 375 degrees. Mix together ingredients of dry dredge. Whisk together ingredients of Alabama white sauce (this will make way too much. Don’t worry it will hold for a week in the refrigerator and is delicious on literally anything.) Lightly coat oysters in dry dredge. Add hot sauce ingredients to mixing bowl including hot oil. Fry oysters until just golden brown 30-60 seconds. Immediately drop fried oysters into “hot sauce” and toss. Move oysters to reserved shell and garnish with a few pieces of diced pickle and a few drops of white sauce.