Despite the recent expansion of oyster aquaculture in the southern US, lack of knowledge about the quality of these farm-raised oysters and even negative perceptions about southern farm-raised oysters continue to persist, especially in regions outside of the southern US. Over the last 2.5 years, we conducted trainings with seafood servers at restaurants in 1) coastal southern US states (at least 54 trainings) as well as 2) ‘foodie’ cites in potential markets (e.g., Boston, New York, Nashville, Seattle, San Diego, with at least 14 trainings). In these trainings, at least 900 seafood servers participated. In addition, two regional wholesale distributors were provided trainings upon request.
In pre and post surveys, servers self-assessed their comfort answering customers’ questions and explaining differences among oyster varieties. Prior to trainings, participants reported a higher average comfort level (p < 0.01) answering customer questions (6.2 on a 10-point scale) than explaining differences among oysters (5.6). Overall, participants reported a 27% increase in comfort answering customer questions (p < 0.01, paired t-test) and a 43% increase in comfort explaining differences among oyster varieties (p < 0.01, paired t-test) with average scores of 7.7 and 7.5, respectively. There was, however, a negative correlation between pre- and post-trainingcomfort, suggesting that knowledgeable servers did not benefit as much from the trainings as less knowledgeable servers.
Participants that volunteered to participate in follow-up interviews (at least 40 conducted) overall spoke favorably of the training. Though few could note significant changes in sales or individual tips, the majority of participants indicated that they (or their staff) were more confident in their knowledge surrounding oysters and many suggested the value of recurring trainings (in some cases to dig deeper on particular topics, in other cases simply as a “refresher”).
Data on changes in overall sales were collected from a subset of restaurants in the six weeks before and after the trainings, but were insufficient to conduct an analysisof the trainings’ effect on sales. In response, additional approaches to test the effect of trainings were tested and results will be reported.