06/30/2026
During the Festival, we announced a Maine Oyster of the Year award. 🏅 Now our judges couldn't sample oysters from all 150+ farms up and down the coast but they did slurp oysters from 17 of the farms participating at the Festival located as far south as Eliot and to the north Brooksville.
The winner will receive a Maine-made cutting board engraved with the festival logo, award title and personalized by Dailey Woodworking with the farm's name ready to hang and display.
This year's judges were Barton Seaver, Jose Garces, Ryan Kelly and Samantha Ramsdell.
Barton Seaver once again generously agreed to emcee the Oyster of the Year award for us. Barton is a sustainable seafood advocate, chef, cookbook author and international renown speaker. He and his family make their home right here in Freeport and he's been one of the champions of the Festival since the beginning. His latest book is The Blue Food Cookbook, co-authored with Andrew Zimmern.
Chef Jose Garces is an American-Ecuadorian chef, restaurateur, and author best known as a champion on Iron Chef America. Born to Ecuadorian parents and raised in Chicago, he built his culinary empire in Philadelphia with acclaimed restaurants like Amada. He is also a James Beard Award winner. Chef Garces is now living in Maine full-time and it was a honor to have him join us at the Festival on Saturday morning. His newest venture is Shokutsu Studio in Biddeford. It serves as his private development lab and creative hub where he develops recipes, films social media content, and hosts intimate pop-up dinners. Welcome to Maine Chef Garces!
Ryan Kelly, Owner of Fiore Olive Oils and Vinegars says that his passion for fine food started in the kitchen of his mother’s restaurant when he was just a kid. He didn’t foresee then that he would have a career in Maine’s food industry – and given that there’s nothing he likes more than a great meal, he really should have seen it coming. Although he didn’t grow up in coastal Maine, since moving here he’s found a real penchant for the fresh seafood offered here, and questions if there is any other bite of food that stands up to a fresh Maine oyster. We know for a fact that he regularly slurps up to 100 in one day at the Festival!
Samantha Ramsdell, originally from Scarborough, loves Maine oysters but she may have over estimated how she would react to eating a large number in a short amount of time early on a Saturday morning. Now living in Falmouth and keeping the internet laughing with her hijinks and physical comedy, she rounded out our judges panel with her Guinness World Record mouth gape.
The judges scored each oyster on taste, texture, shell shape & condition, and overall impression. It's a blind tasting where the oysters are only identified to the volunteer coordinators who assign each a number.
Winner: John's River Oyster They were shucked at the Festival by Nor’Easter Oyster Co. Congrats to Dave Cheney and all his crew!
Second Place: Oysthers Sea Farm
Tied for Third: Eros Oyster, Mimi's Oysters and Salt Cove Oysters
Remember, this is just the opinion of four judges. We think ALL Maine Oysters are phenomenal! Tell us about your favorite shuck of the Festival in the comments!
Photo credit: Kristina Poirier Johns River photo credit: Nor’Easter Oyster Co
