Chef Richard Corrigan’s Mayfair oyster bar, Bentley’s, will be taken over by mollusc mania on September 19 for the annual London Oyster Championships, which marks the beginning of the native oyster season. The centrepiece of the competition is the speed-shucking contest: competitors will have to open their oysters both quickly and carefully to be named the English Oyster Opening Champion. The winner will go on to compete at the World Oyster Opening Championships in Galway.
“It’s a sight to behold,” Corrigan tells Broadsheet of watching competitors shuck at speed.
Meanwhile, chefs and restaurateurs will serve up their most creative oyster toppings in an attempt to impress the judging panel, which includes wine expert Hannah Crosbie, chef and Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt and Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith. They will be fighting for the title of London’s Best Dressed. Judges will consider flavour, appearance and theme. The winner’s oyster dressing will be on the Bentley’s menu for the rest of the month. Returning champion Tom Brown of Pearly Queen will be back, competing alongside chefs from Noisy Oyster, Fallow, Applebee’s and more.
This is the third year the competition has been hosted by the Corrigan Collection restaurant group, which took over running the competition from Tabasco in 2023. Now, the Corrigan’s team wants to use it as an opportunity to promote the seasonal delicacy – and the 2025 instalment is the biggest yet, encompassing much of Swallow Street in Mayfair.
“The Championships celebrate the return of the native oyster season,” Corrigan Collection spokesperson Emma Stokes tells Broadsheet. “They’re the larger, flatter oysters that spend four to five years growing and are only available from September to April. They’ve become hard to find, a seasonal speciality.”
The native oysters used at the championships come from the Loch Ryan Oyster Farm in southwest Scotland, whose beds date back to 1701.
“Our founder, Bill Bentley, ran oyster beds in West Mersey, and brought them up to the restaurant each morning in the early 1900s,” says Corrigan. “They’ve always been a huge part of the way I approach a menu. They’re the perfect opener: they set the scene, prepare the stomach, and get everyone in the mood to enjoy the sort of meal I want to be a part of.”
Ticket holders at the London Oyster Championships will be able to try the oysters shucked and dressed on stage, alongside English sparkling wine from Nyetimber and Anspach & Hobday’s London Black porter, and entrance to the afterparty at Gaucho.
The London Oyster Championships at Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill are on September 19. Tickets are £55 and on sale now.
