Baton Rougean wins New Orleans oyster shucking contest

Baton Rouge transplant Bayley Mowatt, pictured here, took home first place in an oyster shucking contest. Photo by Allie Appel.

Last year, Bayley Mowatt had no idea how to shuck an oyster. But last Saturday, he won an oyster shucking contest during the 2015 New Orleans Oyster Festival.

Mowatt is an 18-year-old Baton Rouge transplant who currently works as a shucker for Jolie Pearl Oyster Bar. At last weekend’s contest, he shucked 18 oysters in two minutes, placing first and winning a cash prize at the event. It was his first time entering such a competition.

Mowatt grew up in Poolesville, Maryland, and has been traveling across the country for about a year. He learned how to shuck oysters working at a restaurant last summer in Ocean City, Maryland.

Late last December, he landed in Baton Rouge after finding a living arrangement on Craigslist.

“It’s the farthest west and south I have ever been,” he says. “I was looking to escape the winter. I wanted to work somewhere and enjoy living somewhere I have never been.”

The move also introduced him to Gulf oysters. Mowatt says he had to get used to their size and thick shell. At Saturday’s contest, he admits he was nervous, but he had a blast. It was just his fourth time visiting New Orleans.

“I had never been in or seen something like [the contest] before,” he says.

However, Mowatt was confident he could at least place. When he wasn’t busy on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays prepping and shucking for crowds at the downtown Baton Rouge restaurant, he would line up oysters in the back of the kitchen and do speed tests.

Before the weekend’s contest, 18 shuckers had to try out. From there, the top six would go on to compete. Mowatt placed third during the tryouts.

“I knew I would be up there,” he says. “I just needed to look at the people above me and practice a little bit.”