What started as a culinary experiment became a classic dish honoring the revered oyster. Here’s the history and the recipe for Oysters Rockefeller, from the oldest restaurant in New Orleans, Antoine’s. It’s an excerpt from Real Food Traveler’s Food History Editor, Suzanne Corbett’s, article about the Louisiana Oyster Trail. 

Save this recipe for Oysters Rockefeller from Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans. Photo courtesy Antoine’s. Graphic by Real Food Traveler.

Hungry for more? Read about feasting along the Louisiana Oyster Trail.

Established by Antoine Alciatore in 1840, Antoine’s Restaurant defines New Orleanian fine dining and haute French Creole cuisine. Antoine’s became renown for culinary creativity, which began in 1899 when Antoine’s son Jules invented Oyster Rockefeller. Rick Blount, fifth-generation proprietor, and great grandson of Jules recounted how his great grandfather developed its signature dish:

“My great grandfather was a chef and was playing with the class Bourguignonne Sauce, the classic butter garlic parley sauce used for escargot. He started integrating the normal stuff he had in the kitchen into the sauce – parsley, green onions, and celery. Not spinach. Spinach isn’t in the recipe. Jules discovered all those vegetables tighten the sauce, which he spooned over escargot before they were baked. During an escargot shortage Jules was inspired to use the sauce on oysters on the half shell and bake them like the escargot. It caught on.”

Jules dubbed it Oyster Rockefeller originally as a joke because it was decadently rich as Rockefeller. The name stuck. Not to the amusement of Rockefeller, who according to family history reports, when Winthrop Rockefeller dined at Antione’s he said his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, was incensed anyone would name a food after him.

Antoine’s menu today offers several styles of baked oysters, including Oysters Bienville topped with a mélange of shrimp, bacon and wine and Thermidor, laced with bacon and tomato sauce. These along with its venerated Rockefeller are served during lunch or dinner.

When ordering the Rockefeller look for your postcard, which are usually delivered with each order. Antoine’s chefs kept a count on how many orders of Rockefeller have been made since that first plate was baked and served by Jules. The official tally card sports a vintage photograph of Jules tableside with your order number. To date that number is nearly five million.

Antoine’s Oysters Rockefeller

Recipe courtesy of Antoine’s Restaurant, the birthplace Oyster Rockefeller.

Ingredients:

Rock salt
12 oysters, chilled
1/4 cup butter
¼ cup flour
¼ tsp cayenne
6 scallions, minced
2 ribs celery, minced
1 bunch parsley, stemmed and minced
2 sprigs tarragon, stemmed and minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
¼ cup fresh breadcrumbs

Directions:

Fill two ovenproof baking dishes halfway with rock salt. Shuck oysters over a bowl to catch their liquor (you should have about 1/2 cup), discarding flat top shells. Loosen oysters from bottom shells with a knife. Nestle six shucked oysters in their shells into each bed of rock salt and chill.

Melt butter in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; cook until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add oyster liquor; cook until thickened to a paste, about 2 minutes.

Stir in cayenne, scallions, celery, tarragon, parsley, and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook until soft, about 1 hour.

Transfer to a food processor, add breadcrumbs, and process into a smooth paste, about 2 minutes.

Heat broiler to high. Place paste in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch fluted tip. Pipe paste completely over oysters.

Broil until paste begins to brown and oysters are just cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.

-Suzanne Corbett, Real Food Traveler Food History Editor

Hungry for more? See how they prepare oysters in Virginia Beach.

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