Florida oyster shucker emerges as a hometown hero

Honor Allen, a 29-year-old native of Panama City, Fla., is considered to be the “fastest oyster shucker” in America. He is a four-time U.S. oyster shucking champion…and he’s become a rock star along Florida’s coastal panhandle region.

 

Honor Allen is featured in several marketing videos produced for the tourism development office. Jennifer Vigil, president of the Destination Panama City organization, said: “Honor Allen is an outstanding individual and stellar ambassador for Panama City.”

 

A Chicago-based advertising agency was so impressed with Honor’s character, grit and charm, it decided to produce a full-length film documentary, “Honor’s Best: Journey of an Oyster Shucking Champion.” It was five years in the making; the crew followed him to China and Ireland for shucking competitions. 

Honor is youthful, lean and lanky, and his big old smile fills up the screen. You can’t help but like the guy and cheer for him to win everytime. 

He “stays in shape,” by working fulltime and getting paid to shuck oysters at Dat Cajun Place, a popular restaurant in Panama City.

 

His goal is to win the premier global shucking event – the World Oyster Opening Championship – staged at the Galway (Ireland) International Oyster and Seafood Festival. 

Honor finished second in 2022 and is itching to get another shot.

 

“At age 12, Honor Allen found himself at Hunt’s Oyster Bar, where his family decided to dine one night,” wrote Hannah Burke of Emerald Coast magazine. “Enamored with the restaurant’s environment and with the quick work of the shuckers, he decided that he’d return on the following day to see if he could help out.” 

“I thought I could show up and say, ‘Hey, remember me? I ate dinner here last night!’” Allen said laughingly. “The next day, there was a completely different crew working the bar, but I decided to talk with them anyway.” 

“I started helping out in kind of an ‘under-the-table way,’ since I was legally too young to be working. Cleaning up, shucking oysters for prep…I was eager to learn.” 

“It wasn’t until Honor was 18 that he was allowed to join Hunt’s as a full-time shucker. Now on the clock, the young man was shelling out thousands of oysters a week,” Burke said. 

And the more he shucked, the faster he got. His co-workers encouraged him to enter local and regional shucking competitions. He said his “personal best” is shucking 24 oysters in 58 seconds. 

For a judged event, he holds the Florida state record of “a minute and 42 seconds for a clean set of 24 oysters.” That’s popping out an oyster every 4.25 seconds. 

“Presentation is a real big key of it,” Honor said. “You want to open it as fast…and as clean as possible. Each competitor’s tray of oysters presented on a half shell is reviewed by judges for impurities, such as pieces of shell, or oysters that are still attached or mangled. Judges will add penalty seconds to a shucker’s time for imperfections.” 

Typically, six shuckers are competing at a time on stage. “When you’re in the moment, you have no idea how far ahead or behind you are from everyone else. All you can hear is the sound of other people’s shells breaking around you,” Honor said. 

To prepare, he says he practices hard, prays hard…and just looks forward to meeting some of the best oyster shuckers in the United States and from around the world. It’s a tight fraternity.

 

Here's the national champion oyster shucker from Latvia.

“I just try to keep a nice, calm demeanor and just go up there and do my best,” he said.

 

Oysters are part of Honor Allen’s daily regimen

 U.S. Oyster shucking champ Honor Allen is very patient when he is being interviewed by reporters who haven’t “been there, done that” when it comes to consuming oysters.

 

“Listen in” on excerpts from his dialogue with travel bloggers Jeff and Lynda of Silver Sun Seeker, who went to Honor’s hometown in Panama City, Fla. Here goes:

 

Q: Do you eat oysters every day? 

A: For the most part, every shift. (Honor Allen works at Dat Cajun Place, a local restaurant.) 

 

Q: Quality control, right? 

A: They’re excellent. Oysters are good for you. You get plenty of minerals from them, a lot of zinc.

  

Q: How do you like to eat them: fried or raw? 

A: I prefer them raw myself. (He recommends going to an oyster bar that has a good reputation. “They’re going to have shuckers there who are experienced and who don’t sell any that they wouldn’t eat.”) 

 

Q: You don’t bite them, do you? You just swallow them? 

(Lynda admits she has never eaten an oyster.) 

A: No, ma’am. You want to chew them up. You want to be able to taste that salty and mineral taste of the oyster itself, let alone chewing up the muscle – it’s real sweet. It all comes together really nice. 

 

Q: They are dead, right? 

A: No. They’re alive. If you are eating them raw, they’ve been alive up until they’ve been shucked. Any of the cooked oysters, of course, they’re not alive. They’re still just as good. 

 

Q: They don’t squeak or anything when you bite them, do they? 

A: No. They are preferably ice-cold if you are eating them raw. They have a real soft texture to them. 

 

Q: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Will you still be shucking oysters? 

A: I’d like to still be shucking. I’d also like to have my own place. 

 

Honor Allen expanded on that response in a conversation with Neysa Wilkins, news anchor at WJHG-TV in Panama City. “I get pretty serious when it comes to shucking events,” he said. “I’m not competitive about much of anything else. But I like winning shucking competitions.”

 

“I’ll probably continue competing just to be around the community,” Honor Allen said. “The people that are at these shucking competitions and the organizers of the festivals…they’re all the salt of the earth.” 

Here is a scenefrom the international oyster opening championship event in Galway, Ireland.

That…plus, he’s “got Chopper’s blade” now. That gives him motivation. Allen’s idol as an oyster shucker is William “Chopper” Young of Wellfleet, Mass., who won the international shucking competition in Ireland in 2008.

This is Chopper before he won a $10 million cash award in the Massachusetts state lottery.

 

They met when Allen advanced to the U.S. shucking championship in 2016. The veteran gave the rookie a few pointers, Wilkins reported. 

“Chopper took me aside and said, ‘Look man, I have this knife,’” Allen imitated. “It’s yours.” 

Wilkins said that Allen’s eventual plan is to become an oyster farmer and grow his own oysters. 

The owner of West Bay Oyster Company in Panama City is allowing Allen to sublease some of his water. “In my opinion, aquaculture is a goldmine waiting to happen out here in these bays,” Allen said. 

He’s already learned a bit about raising oysters by having invested time working at Fiddler’s Point Oyster Company, in Panacea, Fla., on Apalachee Bay, which sources farm-raised oysters for many regional restaurants. 

Don’t be surprised if Honor and his wife, Brianna King Allen, eventually open their own restaurant. She’s into food and presently serves as the general manager at the Copper Top Grille in Panama City…and competes as an amateur oyster shucker.

Honor and Brianna enjoyed a meal in Galway, Ireland, at the legenday Oyster Cottage owned and operated by the Moran family. Willie Moran won a world oyster shucking title, and so has his son, Michael Moran.