Page 112 - PROTAGONIST 132

Left, opened oyster with lemon juice. On the right, pearl cultivation in French Polynesia. ©Luis Davilla/Cover/Getty Images/Oyster&Chop

Jewels of the sea, culinary treasures already beloved are delicacies for sophisticated palates all over the world,
by Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, and, among the highest expressions of luxury gastronomy.
through the centuries, by kings, queens, dignitaries and Maintaining their exclusivity status is the extreme rarity of
aristocrats. Pliny the Elder questioned whether those from wild oysters, victims of overfishing and the destruction of
the Sea of Marmara or Brittany were better, the taste of marine habitats, and their long and complex life cycle that
those from Medoc and the pungency of those from Ephesus, continues to keep them at the top of the objects of desire for
or whether those from Circeo were whiter than those from the world’s richest people as a symbol of luxury, refinement
Spain. In the Middle Ages, it was Henry IV, who was a glutton and taste.
for oysters, who made oysters a favorite among all European Among the most renowned places for oyster cultivation
nobility. It is said that Giacomo Casanova had oysters sent is Brittany, which also boasts the inscription of the oysters
wherever he went to eat them for breakfast, as well as of Can–cale – one of the 12 names of those in the area –
before each of his romantic encounters, convinced that in the Unesco intangible cultural heritage. Among the most
each mouthful brought him a little closer to the fulfillment renowned are the fleshy, delicate–tasting, highly iodized
of his most ardent desires. There is little wonder about the Belon oysters with a vaguely nutty aftertaste. They take
habits of the Venetian seducer given that Louis XV, the their name from the Belon River, where they are refined in
libertine king, hung Le Déjeuner d’huîtres on the walls of the brackish waters of the estuary. Depending on their size,
Versailles, a canvas famous because it also depicted the they can cost up to 10 euros each. In the waters of the Bay
first bottle of champagne in history. of Mont Saint Michel comes the Spéciale Tsarskaya, also
Even today, despite the fact that consumption is not refined in Cancale: it is known as the tsars’ oyster because
exclusively reserved for the most high–end tables, oysters of the Romanovs’ fondness for this variety.

110 Food Protagonist