What it takes to win Wellfleet OysterFest's speed-shucking contest

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Welcome to mid-October, a time for hayrides, corn mazes and… oyster shuck-offs?

While much of Massachusetts is focused on all things apple-flavored and pumpkin-spiced, thousands are expected to make their way to Wellfleet this weekend for bites with a bit more brine. It’s the Cape Cod town’s 25th annual OysterFest, a two-day celebration highlighting Wellfleet’s eponymous oysters, local art and more.

The autumn event draws up to 20,000 people during its run to enjoy fresh oysters, beer, wine, food from local vendors and live music. There are also culinary demonstrations and lectures for those looking to pick up some cooking tips, and kids’ activities, like a bouncy house.

But of all the exciting diversions at OysterFest, you’ll notice most folks abuzz over the Shuck-Off, an international competition where contestants race to cleanly shuck 24 Wellfleet oysters as fast as possible.

Chris Manocchio is one of those competitors. A native of Canada who  first began shucking oysters as a bartender at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto, Manocchio won first place at last year’s Shuck-Off after shucking all 24 oysters in just 1 minute and 57 seconds. That’s less than five seconds per oyster. (Officially, his time was 2 minutes and 13 seconds, with added penalties, but it still bested the second-place finisher by 15 seconds.)

It’s a feat that takes practice and, of course, fast hands, said Manocchio. But what matters most is understanding how oysters are meant to be served, even in this contest of speed.

“You can get penalized for grit in the oyster, if you cut it any place other than the adductor muscle, if you don’t detach it from the shell,” Manocchio said. “These are all things that if you were in a restaurant setting, it would deter from your enjoyment. So we’re judging based on a realistic standard of how oysters should be presented and consumed.”

With such a focus on culinary presentation, it may come as no surprise to hear that among the 28 competitors for this year’s Shuck-Off are numerous chefs, fishermen and former bartenders like Manocchio.

“Everybody has their own technique,” said Robert Daffin, a retired competitive shucker.

That technique also depends on the oyster. Daffin, who grew up in Florida, says northern-grown oysters (like the ones in Wellfleet) tend to have brittle, thinner shells, which require more fragile handling — and a smaller knife — compared to the ones he’s shucked in the Gulf Coast. “The [knives] they use up here would snap in our oysters,” Daffin said. Whether a competitor uses a sharp or dull knife is according to preference, but most contestants bring two to three knives to accommodate variance during competition, he added.

“My personal knife wouldn’t cut through a piece of paper without really trying to punch through it,” Manocchio said.

Shuckers who can best master the balance of precision and speed (without slicing themselves in the process — because that’s also a time penalty) will go home with a cash prize. First place is $3,000 and a chance to compete in the 2026 U.S. National Oyster Shucking Championship. The runner-up still gets $1,500, and third place gets $500.

Wellfleet’s OysterFest is one of the last international shucking competitions of the year. Manocchio says the big international competitions take a pause in the winter and early spring. However, smaller competitions across North America happen year-round — despite the old rule that oysters should only be consumed during months with the letter “R” in them. (That comes from a time when oysters were harder to keep fresh — though Manocchio says you’ll still find oysters at their best in fall and winter.)

“You can eat oysters 365 days a year,” said Daffin, so long as the oysters are harvested from beds where the water has been tested for fecal and vibrio bacteria.

Manocchio thinks it’s amazing how oysters, for how little they do, have shaped his adult life, whisking him to shucking competitions from Wellfleet to Vancouver to as far as Galway, Ireland. “If you let it, an oyster will take you around the world to the most unexpected places, to meet the most welcoming people, with the best food offerings,” he said. “If you let it, it can really take you on an adventure.”

P.S. — Shucking competitions will take place on both days of OysterFest, Oct. 18 and 19, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday’s competition will be the Shuck-Off finals. Admission is $35 for anyone over the age of 12, and there’s free parking and free shuttle service to Main Street in Wellfleet for the festival. Get more details here.