Sustainable Oystering: A Farmer-to-Table Conversation

Moderated by Malin Pinsky, Rutgers University

4:30 pm – 6 pm: Presentations and Q&A
6 pm – 7pm: Tasting/Reception

Register on the Effron Center event page.

Anita Lo is a French-trained chef and cookbook author (Cooking Without Borders and SoLo, a Modern Cookbook for a Party of One, which won Eater’s Cookbook of the Year and was nominated for an IACP award) based in New York City. She is best known for her work at annisa, a contemporary American fine dining restaurant in the West Village which she owned and operated for 17 years and which received a three star rating from the New York Times and a Michelin star among other accolades. She was the first female chef to collaborate for a state dinner at the White House, under the Obama Administration. She has appeared on numerous television shows and films including Top Chef Masters, Iron Chef America and The Heat. She is currently working with the Tour De Forks, hosting culinary tours around the planet. She was recently knighted to the Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government.

Eighteen years ago, Mike and Isabel Osinky sold their software firm. After a year of trying to retire, they discovered they owned 5 acres of bottom in Greenport Harbor, once New York’s oyster capital. Obtaining permits, they began growing oysters, taking them weekly into Manhattan. Through trial and error, advice from the Greenporters who remembered the past trade in oysters, and support from New York’s finest chefs, the Widow’s Hole Oyster has become one of the city’s favorites.

Malin Pinsky, associate professor at Rutgers University, is a marine biologist with expertise in ocean conservation, climate change, and rapid evolution. His more than 100 publications have appeared in Science, Nature, and other journals, and his research has been covered by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BBC, among others. He is an Earth Leadership Fellow and an Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and he was named one of Science News’ ten scientists to watch in 2019. Pinsky serves on advisory boards for the Beijer Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the non-profit Oceana, and the Chewonki Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University and a B.A. in biology and environmental studies from Williams College. He grew up exploring tidepools and mountains in Maine.

Cosponsored by the Effron Center for the Study of America, the Humanities Council, the University Center for Human Values, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute