How did the Pacific oyster get to the Swedish coast? What sounds like the beginning of a joke is a question that spans a century, from the introduction of the Pacific oyster, crassostrea gigas, to the US West Coast from Japan in the 1920s. Since then, this sessile oyster has ‘traveled’ to every corner of the world and has become not only the #1 aquaculture oyster on a global scale, but has also ‘gone native’ in many ecosystems to which it is not endemic. How does this relative newcomer – in and out of the water – relate to local oyster species with longer culinary traditions, whether that be the European oyster in Sweden or the Olympia oyster of the North American west? How have oysters in general, regardless of species, transformed into a taste that conveys distinction rather than affordability or necessity? And how does taste relate to environment?
Philine Schiller is a doctoral researcher in the culinary environmental humanities with a background in literary studies. She is part of the research group “Off the Menu” at the University of Augsburg, Germany, and is interested in culinary extinctions, the eating of endangered foods and their narration in cookbooks and recipes. Her research project examines the rise and fall of the North American oyster industry. She can be reached at
philine.schiller@uni-a.de
