There’s a hot new oyster knife in town, and if its funky looks – chunky orange handle, longer blade with an extra point on one side – aren’t enough to lure anyone who’s ever tried to shuck the bivalves, its ease of use and the promise of injury-free success should do it. Designed by Alex Whitman, 28, with a focus on with one of the town’s established shellfishermen. “When you get a job like that as your first job, it kind of sours all the others,” he says. “It’s a really hard job, too.” Starting in high school, he spent several summers at the town’s popular Beachcomber restaurant, working his way up from dishwasher. “I got to spend a lot of time behind the raw bar. While I was there, I definitely cut myself a few times. The idea that there’s got to be a better oyster knife started to take seed,” he says.
He started working on designs for the OCK knife about 10 years ago, while he was in college at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, where he focused on industrial design. He took a very early prototype to a local restaurant, hoping to get input from its award-winning chef. It took several safety, ergonomics and versatility, the knife and related oyster coasters are the first items produced by Outer Cape Kitchen. Whitman co-founded the company with a longtime friend. He is currently the only full-time employee but works with a small freelance team.
“Shucking oysters is a real skill,” says Whitman, a New York native who grew up spending summers in Wellfleet with extended family. “We wanted something that would take away the cutting fear.” Ideal for novice and even more experienced home shuckers, as well as professionals, the knives are already being used at some seafood restaurants and raw bars.
The entrepreneur, who now splits his time between Wellfleet and Providence, learned to shuck at an early age. “Oysters and clams were always a staple in our family kitchen,” he says. Whitman’s first job, when he was 12, was farming oysters and clams on the Wellfleet flats visits before he was even able to talk to her, but once they finally met, she agreed to test prototypes. “She was super kind,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘that’s the power of continuing the effort.’”
Through a SCAD program, Whitman did two internships with Snap-on, the tools and equipment manufacturer, which led to a full-time job in the company’s innovation department after graduation. During his three-year stint there, he focused heavily on product research, traveling on the company trucks throughout the country. He tested prototypes with customers, bringing their comments back to designers. And he spent time with salespeople.
When he left Snap-on, Whitman moved from Chicago to Wellfleet. He says it took another year of research and development – talking to shuckers, identifying pain points, developing ideas through sketches, making 3-D models – to arrive at the final knife design.
The OCK knife’s blade is a pretty dramatic change from traditional oyster knives. It is longer, with a small point protruding from the side. Less experienced shuckers in particular might prefer to use this tip for hinge shucking. With the oyster nestled in a towel on a flat surface, the shucker inserts the side point of the blade into the end of the oyster where the two halves of the shell are connected. A slight twist of the knife seats it into the hinge. Once seated, the shucker can use both hands on the blade to apply enough pressure to pop the hinge in a controlled manner with little risk of slipping the blade too far into the oyster, potentially damaging the animal or the shucker. Whitman created a helpful “How-To” video on OCK’s website, outercapekitchen.com. More experienced shuckers, competitors, and professionals might prefer to use the knife’s rounded tip for side shucking.
The knife’s solid, bright orange handle is made from food-grade polypropylene. It is comfortable to hold and has a non-slip mat texture to keep it from slipping even when it’s wet. “Orange is a classic color of the fishing industry. It’s also my favorite color,” Whitman explains, adding, “There wasn’t an orange oyster knife yet.”
As he got closer to finalizing the knife design, Whitman began work on OCK’s second product, oyster coasters. “Not only do we care about making products that solve real pain points and that make prepping and cooking seafood easier, but we also care about the serving, what it means to gather around seafood” he says. “For me, growing up, seafood was what brought the family together.”
Whitman noted that without crushed ice, which most households don’t typically have on hand, it can be tricky to serve raw oysters at their proper temperature without losing their valuable liquid. He designed a modular, stackable, easy-to-store solution. OCK’s oyster coasters, which are made of stamped aluminum with an oxidized exterior coating, loosely mimic oysters’ shape and are just over a half-inch deep. “We played around with different divot patterns,” he says. The final design was inspired by the ripples formed when you throw a rock into water. Practical and attractive, the coasters can be popped into the freezer five to ten minutes before serving time, then arranged on plates with or without ice.
Working out of his truck, which doubles as Outer Cape Kitchen headquarters, Whitman spends a lot of his time visiting restaurants, shops, oyster festivals and shucking competitions up and down the east coast between Canada and the Carolinas, though the largest concentration of customers is in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Currently the knives are sold in several Cape Cod shops and online.
Inspired by James Dyson and Yvon Chouinard, the founders of Dyson and Patagonia respectively, Whitman says his goal is “to build a kitchenware seafood brand focused on the environment and giving back.” The company, which officially launched in April, donates one percent of annual sales to Wellfleet Oyster Alliance; one percent of annual product to educational or charity fundraisers tied to the ocean, coastal and fishing communities; and one percent of employee time to community service.
Whitman and his team have already begun research and development on a couple of new products. “We are super design focused. We don’t want to do anything standard,” he says.
Outer Cape Kitchen
outercapekitchen.com
