Have you harvested some fresh oysters in Southeast Alaska, but don’t know how to shuck them? Did you buy some fresh oysters, but want to learn new ways to prepare them?

Join Beak restaurant chef/owner Renée Jakaitis Trafton for the Sitka Kitch‘s Oyster Shucking 101 class from 6-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen (located at the Sitka Lutheran Church kitchen, 224 Lincoln Street, enter back door through alley off of Harbor Drive).

In this class, Renée will teach basic oyster shucking technique, safety precautions, accompanying sauces, and cooking with oysters. She will discuss various aspects of this tasty bivalve and then demonstrate how to safely shuck an oyster. After shucking, participants will eat some raw oysters to taste with cocktail sauce and mignonette, and then participants will learn to make Oyster Rockefeller.

The $40 class price includes an oyster knife, eight oysters, sauces, recipes, and ingredients for Oyster Rockefeller. The registration deadline is 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 1. Space is limited, so register early to secure your place in the class.

We need at least eight students to register and pre-pay to make this class happen. The class costs $40, which is part of our new all-inclusive fee system (you no longer have to pay a class fee to register, then a separate food/supply fee). You can register and pre-pay using credit/debit cards or PayPal on our EventSmart page, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com (click on class title). For those wanting to pre-pay with cash or check, please call Chandler O’Connell or Clarice Johnson at Sitka Conservation Society (747-7509) to arrange a payment.

For more information about the class, contact Jasmine Shaw at 747-9440. We do offer one potential scholarship spot per class for people with limited incomes, so long as we have enough students registered to make the class happen. Contact Chandler at SCS for more details about the scholarship. This class is a fundraiser for the Sitka Kitch.

Students should enter the Sitka Lutheran Church through the back entrance (through the alley off Harbor Drive by the old Bev’s Flowers and Gifts location). The door on the right should be open for students to enter. Please do not park in the church’s back parking lot. Please use the public parking lots off Harbor Drive.

The Sitka Kitch also has a new class cancelation policy. If you register for a class, then find out you can’t attend, please email us at sitkakitch@sitkawild.org and we may be able to help fill your slot through our waiting list. If you cancel from the class at least five days in advance (eg, by Wednesday the week before for a Monday class), you are eligible for a partial refund of your class fee, minus $5 for processing (in this case, $35). If you need to cancel with less than five days advance notice, there is no refund.