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A big surprise for chef Marco Blok of restaurant Mei from Amersfoort. He has been working with oysters in his kitchen for 32 years and for the first time in his life he recently found a pearl in it.
In the AD he says he had to open six oysters. At the third he encountered a white ball. “At first I thought it was a growth. Then I found out what it really was: ‘Huh, a pearl!”
The encapsulation
It is estimated that only 1 in 15,000 wild oysters contains a pearl. A pearl is actually a grain of sand or a tiny piece of seaweed that the oyster has accidentally sucked into its shell and irritates the shellfish. That is why the animal encapsulates the dirt with a thin layer of mother-of-pearl. He will continue to do so as long as the dirt remains and over the years a pearl is slowly but surely created.
The value of a pearl depends on its shape and size. The rounder and larger the pearl, the more it is worth. The shine is also important. An almost perfect pearl can fetch up to 30,000 euros. A maximum of 10 euros is paid for a small pearl with many imperfections.
Because the find shows so much luck, the Amersfoort cook immediately bought a state lot, he jokes to the newspaper.
