About

What Is an Oyster Evangelist?

When I was dreaming up an address for what would be my permanent online home, there were a lot of factors to consider. I kept trying on new names for the site, and nothing spoke to me. One day, I  updated my facebook status to say: Joy Manning, Oyster Evangelist. That felt right. Earlier that week, I had witnessed three people bravely and without much optimism slurp oysters for the first time at my insistence.

I can be a bully that way. The look that crosses a person’s face when she realizes how purely delicious, how sweet and salty and creamy and crisp an oyster is, well, making that happen feels like my purpose in life. I want everyone to have this moment, with oysters and with the whole wide world of delicious things yet to be tasted. That makes me an evangelist.

This is my personal blog, which is to say mostly a food blog. I have always known I wanted to write, but I struggled with what I should be writing for years, passing through the fields of poetry, academia, and fiction writing. When I first started writing about food and restaurants in 2004, it was like finally finding the right key on an overcrowded key ring. I slipped the key in and seemingly without effort, the lock clicked and a door swung open. On the other side of that door was my life’s work. Food writing. Since then, I’ve been a food editor, a restaurant critic, a cookbook author, a recipe developer, and a blogger.

This blog won’t be relegated to oyster coverage, but my subject will be all that the oyster stands for in my mind: simplicity, freshness, pleasure, tradition, luxury, sensuality, and health. Of course, it also refers to that leap of faith we all take when we taste something we fear for the first time. For me, an oyster tastes like the thrill of overcoming preconceived notions.

The Oyster Evangelist is a place where I can bring all my interests together under one roof. I’ll write about cooking and eating at home as well as restaurants. I’ll write about food issues, and I’ll espouse my everything-from-scratch food philosophy and my conviction that to eat well is to live well. And, when possible, I’ll write about oysters. They are, after all, my favorite food.