What happens to your used oyster shells after that decadent meal?
Oyster reefs need to be rebuilt; they are currently at a shocking 1 percent of historic levels. In the San Francisco Bay Area, baby oysters free swim in the bay but require oyster shells to settle on and grow. They seek out shells, and over time, oyster reefs, a collection of living and dead shells, form to protect the community. The Wild Oyster Project returns those native Olympia shells to the bay to help restore the delicate balance needed to help oysters thrive. It's a cool sustainability measure; in the project's words, 'Let's eat oysters to save the oysters!"
I first learned about the project at the Salt Wood Kitchen & Oysterette in Marina, California. The associated hotel on the property, Sanctuary Beach Resort, participates in the Wild Oyster Project and also does small-scale recycling of the shells by setting up guests to do découpage projects on discarded and cleaned shells.
So, how does it work? Restaurants all over the Bay Area keep a marked 5-gallon plastic bucket on hand to gather the shells, and project volunteers come by to collect them weekly or bi-monthly. Restaurants are limited to ten buckets a month. The shells then go to a shell-curing site to be cleaned of any invasive species and bacteria… and then they're returned to the water via oyster restoration projects.
A well-known restaurant that participates in this project is Lazy Bear, a restaurant in San Francisco carrying two Michelin stars. Almond and Oak in Oakland, across the bay, is another participant, as is San Francisco cocktail bar Petite Lil's. The Salty Pearl seafood restaurant in Oakland also takes part—and it should, since it's in Jack London Square, named for the famous author who was a teenage oyster pirate, sailing out under the cover of darkness to illegally harvest oysters and sell them to restaurants. According to this source, he earned the nickname, 'The Prince of the Oyster Pirates.' Who knew?
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Metro
28-07-2025
- Metro
Gaza becomes 'most expensive place to eat in the world'
'Where in the world is food more expensive than London, Dubai, and New York?' It sounds like a setup to a cheap joke but the harrowing answer is Gaza. Under a suffocating Israeli blockade, food, fuel and humanitarian aid have become luxuries for Palestinians. The result? People are starving. Not metaphorically, not gradually – literally. What little food remains has been pushed to black-market extremities, as shown by prices shared with Metro by Christian Aid workers on the ground. A 25kg sack of flour is now more expensive than a Michelin-star dinner in Paris, costing as much as £414, compared to £8.80 before the start of the war. A kilogram of sugar is £88, in stark contrast with the price of £0.60 less than two years ago. Staples like oil, bread and eggs – when available – have all become entirely out of reach for Palestinians. Speaking of the impact of the unfolding famine, Ranin Awad who works for Christian Aid's local partner in Gaza, Women's Affairs Centre (WAC), said: 'My colleagues and I only eat one meal a day, depending on what we can afford and what is available. We are dealing with fatigue, dizziness, and overwhelming weakness. 'Recent months have been filled with death, fear and displacement. It is like a nightmare that has devastated our hopes, memories, and houses. 'Our home was destroyed and we were forced to flee many times. All of our memories have been obliterated. 'My son was just a month old when the war began. He had a new, lovely room with pretty furniture and toys. There is nothing left for him now, all is ash.' Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded six more deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children. This brings the total number of starvation deaths to 133, which included 87 children. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said: 'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.' He said that one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished – a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied. In a post on X, Lazzarini warned: 'When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, and famine silently begins to unfold. 'Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they do not get the treatment they urgently need.' Amid the starvation, Egyptians have launched an initiative called 'From sea to sea – a bottle of hope for Gaza'. Plastic bottles are being filled with grains, rice and lentils and hurled into the Mediterranean Sea in the hope that they will reach the enclave – even though the Israeli Defence Forces have banned Palestinians from entering the water. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video While largely symbolic – aimed at highlighting Israel's purposeful starvation of civilians, several bottles appear to have reached Gaza. A video shared on TikTok by creator Saqer Abu Saqr, from the north of the enclave, shows him thanking Egyptians for sending him a bottle filled with yellow lentils. Waving the gift, he says: 'This came by the sea from the young people in Egypt. Thank you, may Allah bless you.' Another Palestinian creator with some 2.5 million followers on Instagram, Mohamed Al Khalidi, shared a video titled 'The most expensive city in the world.' Walking through Gaza City's crumbling streets, Mohamed highlights some of the prices of basic goods – £37 for a kilogram of flour, £66 for a kilogram of sugar, and £22 for a kilogram of lentils. He says: 'The famine is intensifying significantly. Even the simplest items now cost 10 times their normal price, and only a few things are available. Everything is scarce. I keep thinking about those who have no money at all.' Israel has been facing growing criticism over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the United Nations over the weekend to stop blaming his government for what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as 'man-made mass starvation'. This came hours after the military said it would pause operations for 10 hours a day in three areas – Al Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City – and permit new aid corridors. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 25 tonnes of food and supplies to the enclave – which is still less than what one of the hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks stuck outside of Gaza could bring in if allowed. But Lazzarini stressed that aid airdrops will not reverse the starvation and added: 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke. More Trending 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need. 'Allow the UN including UNRWA and our partners to operate at scale and without bureaucratic or political hurdles. 'At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza. 'Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer. It's more dignified for the people of Gaza.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: What's stopping Keir Starmer from recognising Palestine as a state? 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Daily Mail
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- Daily Mail
Chefs explain why restaurant mashed potato always tastes better than homemade
Chefs have divulged why mashed potato at a restaurant always tastes better than when made at home. Many agree the answer is lashings of salt and butter, but some chefs insist there is far more to the art of a velvety mash. Inspired by a popular Reddit thread calling on professionals to reveal their secrets, chefs have now spilled on how to master a mash that's both creamy and indulgent. The post began: 'I'm still figuring out how to cook, but one thing that always confuses me is mashed potatoes at restaurants. 'They're so creamy, smooth and buttery without tasting too heavy. I don't know what they're doing differently, but mine never turn out like that... it still feels like something's missing. 'Just wondering what makes restaurant mashed potatoes hit different?' A fine dining cook who claimed to have worked under Michelin star chefs for many years immediately jumped in to share the method he's been using for years. He said: '[We use] either a tamis with a plastic bench scraper or a China cap with a ladle used to push it through.' A tamis - pronounced 'tammy' - is a drum-shaped sieve with fine mesh attached. A China cap is a cone-shaped strainer with perforated metal on the inside. He continued: 'When we'd make Pomme Puree [velvety mash] we would do about 16 cups of peeled Yukon gold potatoes soaked (in water to prevent oxidization) and cut up to an even size. 'Bring them to boil in a pot with just enough salted (and I mean pretty flavorful) water to cover the surface. Less water = better texture mash. 'Once it was boiling I'd reduce it to a simmer until a cake tester came out clean but not where the potatoes got over cooked/mealy. You don't want that either.' The chef then advises immediately draining the water, 'tamising or ricing' the potatoes into a large bowl and adding simmered heavy cream to the desired texture. Follow that with about 500g of cubed-up good quality cold butter. He said: 'The cold butter helps mount and emulsify the potatoes so that they have an incredibly smooth texture. 'After emulsification we'd sometimes add some garlic thyme brown butter we'd prepped earlier and quickly stir it in so it would stay emulsified. Salt and season to taste. 'Most places I've worked have done this or similar.' Multiple users agreed with this chef's approach, while others weighed in with their own tips - mostly involving excessive amounts of butter and cream. One confessed: 'So much butter and cream. Way more than you would imagine. Like some of the fancier and more luxurious places are doing their mashed potatoes 50 per cent butter by weight.' Another agreed: 'I'm a chef. It's what everyone else said. A s*** load of butter, salt, white pepper and cream. Like an amount you've never considered because most normal people can't comprehend it.' One more admitted: 'So much more butter. Like a comical amount.' Others offered a little more substance with specific tips they've always sworn by. One chef said: 'Bake the potatoes in the oven in their skin, scoop out flesh, put through potato ricer, add hot milk flavored with bay leaf, add lots of butter and salt.' A second suggested: 'Another tip to level up your mash is to steep garlic and herbs in the cream, then strain them out before you add it. It's awesome.' A third added: 'Use a potato ricer, better butter and higher fat dairy. Make sure you're using the right potato. Mix them to amalgamate and no more. Don't overwork them, they'll get pasty. Rest them, they're often made towards start of shift and reheated as needed... and I don't know why sitting for an hour-plus helps, but it makes a difference.'
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Chef's secret: Why restaurant mashed potato ALWAYS tastes better
It's an age old question: why is mashed potato always so much better when the experts make it? And while many agree the answer is lashings of salt and butter, some chefs insist there is far more to the art of a velvety mash. Inspired by a popular Reddit thread calling on professionals to reveal their secrets, chefs have now spilled their once gate-kept methods - and the gadgets they swear by for an indulgent, creamy result. 'I'm still figuring out how to cook, but one thing that always confuses me is mashed potatoes at restaurants,' the post began. 'They're so creamy, smooth and buttery without tasting too heavy. I don't know what they're doing differently, but mine never turn out like that... it still feels like something's missing. 'Just wondering what makes restaurant mashed potatoes hit different?' A fine dining chef who claimed to have worked under Michelin star chefs for many years immediately jumped in to share the method he's been using for years. '[We use] either a tamis with a plastic bench scraper or a China cap with a ladle used to push it through,' he said. A tamis - pronounced 'tammy' - is a drum-shaped sieve with fine mesh attached. A China cap is a cone-shaped strainer with perforated metal on the inside. 'When we'd make Pomme Puree [velvety mash] we would do about 16 cups of peeled Yukon gold potatoes soaked (in water to prevent oxidisation) and cut up to an even size,' the chef continued. 'Bring them to boil in a pot with just enough salted (and I mean pretty flavorful) water to cover the surface. Less water = better texture mash. 'Once it was boiling I'd reduce it to a simmer until a cake tester came out clean but not where the potatoes got over cooked/mealy. You don't want that either.' The chef then advises immediately draining the water, 'tamising or ricing' the potatoes into a large bowl and adding simmered heavy cream to the desired texture. Follow that with about 500g or cubed-up good quality cold butter. 'The cold butter helps mount and emulsify the potatoes so that they have an incredibly smooth texture,' he said. 'After emulsification we'd sometimes add some garlic thyme brown butter we'd prepped earlier and quickly stir it in so it would stay emulsified. Salt and season to taste. 'Most places I've worked have done this or similar.' Hundreds agreed with this chef's approach, while others weighed in with their own handy tips - mostly involving excessive amounts of butter and cream. 'So much butter and cream. Way more than you would imagine. Like some of the fancier and more luxurious places are doing their mashed potatoes 50 per cent butter by weight,' one confessed. 'I'm a chef. It's what everyone else said. A s**tload of butter, salt, white pepper and cream. Like an amount you've never considered because most normal people can't comprehend it,' another agreed. 'So much more butter. Like a comical amount,' one more admitted. Others offered a little more substance with specific tips they've always sworn by. 'Bake the potatoes in the oven in their skin, scoop out flesh, put through potato ricer, add hot milk flavored with bay leaf, add lots of butter and salt,' one chef said. 'Another tip to level up your mash is to steep garlic and herbs in the cream, then strain them out before you add it. It's awesome,' another suggested. 'Use a potato ricer, better butter and higher fat dairy. Make sure you're using the right potato. Mix them to amalgamate and no more. Don't overwork them, they'll get pasty. Rest them, they're often made towards start of shift and reheated as needed... and I don't know why sitting for an hour-plus helps, but it makes a difference,' one more concluded. How do some of our favourite chefs make the 'perfect' mash? Andrew Rudd, Medley Andrew uses a potato ricer as opposed to a masher to ensure the texture is silky smooth. During this process, the potato cells rupture as they pass through the perforated base - preventing the spuds becoming overworked - while the tool also turns the spuds into rice-sized pieces, which contributes to its overall lightness. Once you've prepped your potatoes, Andrew gets a small saucepan and adds in cream, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. He then puts the potato on the hob and gradually adds that mix with spatula. Robbie Bell, City Larder Robbie, who is Heston Blumenthal's former protégé, uses nutmeg and squeezes some lemon on top of his mashed potato to add in a dash of acidity. He peels his potatoes and quarters them then adds them to a large pot of salted, boiling water before reducing the heat and simmering the potatoes gently. Then he drains the potatoes, dries them out in a pan, and set them aside. After heating a little butter in a saucepan, the then puts the boiled potatoes through a mouli press and adds them to the pan. Then he adds olive oil, milk, and bit of nutmeg to the mashed potatoes. He finishes with lemon. 'We love a little bit of acidity so I add in a little bit of lemon - it's as simple as that,' he says. Rob Nixon, Nicko's Kitchen Creates 'smooth, creamy' mash by peeling white potatoes and mixing the skins with milk in a saucepan over a high heat, allowing the flavour of the peels to infuse into the liquid. While the skins soak, he cuts each potato in half and boiled for 15 minutes before gently pushing them through a potato ricer over a sieve to mash and remove all traces of fine lumps. After seasoning the mashed potato with butter, salt and pepper, he strains milk from the skins and pours it over the top.
