Let's Talk Tri Delta

Aw Shucks! Building an Oyster Empire With Julie Qiu

Episode Summary

Dive into this episode with Julie Qiu, Carnegie Mellon, as she redefines what it means to follow your passion—and she’s doing it one oyster at a time. In this fun and fascinating episode, Tri Delta CEO Mindy Tucker, Southern Methodist, chats with Julie about her journey from marketing brand strategist to global oyster expert. You either love oysters or you don’t, but either way, you’ll love this podcast episode packed with inspiration, laughs and a few shucking good surprises!

Episode Notes

As the founder of In a Half Shell, a blog exploring oyster culture around the world, and co-founder of the Oyster Master Guild (OMG), the first professional training program for oyster “sommeliers,” Julie brings storytelling, sustainability and serious flavor to seafood lovers, restaurants and food industry professionals. From the connection between oysters and Tri Delta’s beloved pearl to the future of aquaculture and tips for learning to love oysters (even if you’re skeptical), Julie shares how she’s building a career by defining something entirely new. Whether you’re an oyster superfan or just oyster-curious, this episode is full of Julie’s wisdom, wit and taste-bud-changing ideas and advice.

Episode Transcription

This transcript was created using automated technologies and may contain errors.

 

Welcome to our Let's Talk Tri Delta podcast. I'm Mindy Tucker. I'm Tri Delta’s CEO and

your podcast host today. I'm really excited about our guest, Julie Qiu, who is from

the Alpha Tau chapter at Carnegie Mellon. She is an entrepreneur, a marketer, a

pioneer, get this, in the world of oyster appreciation and sustainability. I can't

think of anything more Tri Delta right now. If we think about where the pearl comes

from, our beloved symbol, today we're gonna get to talk a little bit about oysters

and learn a little bit more about the thing that creates our beautiful, beautiful

jewel in Tri Delta. Julie is the founder of In A Half Shell. It's a long running

blog exploring global oyster culture. She's the founder of the Oyster Master Guild.

That's the first professional training and certification for oyster simolees.

You might say she's doing for oysters, what simolees did for wine. I really can't

wait to dive into this conversation with you, Julie. Welcome to the podcast. Thank

you so much for having me. So let's, before we get into the oysters and what

you're doing now. I want to talk a little bit about you and your background. How

did you go from being a toddler in Shanghai to a college student at Carnegie

Mellon? Wow, so that's quite a span of years, but I'll do my best. Well,

I was born in Shanghai. My entire family is from China. And you know,

my parents, I think they were probably adventurous at their age,

well -educated, kind of wanting to do something different, they decided that they

wanted to go and pursue the American dream. So my dad actually started a graduate

program in Boston and my mom and I came over when I was about five years old and

we decided just to settle down in the Midwest in Indiana of all states and that's

where That's where I grew up.

I think typically when you think about Asian families, parents have very high

expectations for their children, especially only children. And so even though they

were a little different from other Asian parents, like to tell them to be like

doctors and lawyers, they kind of just wanted me to be happy and successful in

whatever I wanted to do. At an early age, I think I really gravitated to creative

arts, drawing, design, photography, storytelling. But on the other hand,

I was a little bit of a nerd. I like math. I like science. And so Carnegie Mellon

seemed like a very good fit because they had a wonderful design program, a great

business school. And that's ultimately where I chose to do my four years. - Okay,

where in Indiana did you guys locate? - In Bloomington, Indiana, where Indiana

University is. So I had a good exposure to what college life could be like. - Okay,

yeah. - Rowing around campus and all that, but I definitely wanted a change of

scenery. - Did you know about Greek life before you got to college?

- Not directly, but when I would go to my piano lessons at IU, we would pass by

these gorgeous and enormous houses. And I always wondered what those were. And lo

and behold, they were the sorority of fraternity houses. They have a, that's a

pretty thriving, great community of Indiana. I wondered if that had influenced your,

your outlook at all. And so when you get to Carnegie Mellon, what, what drew you

into joining a sorority and choosing Tri Delta? Right. So this was actually before I

even got to college. I think I'm not sure what in me wanted to feel a little bit

more secure. Maybe it was because I didn't know anybody going to Carnegie Mellon at

the time and I really wanted to know somebody when I got there. So the internet

was starting to be a thing and I would go online and there would be these online

blogging communities and I went into one and I found myself,

someone who went to Carnegie Mellon by just doing some research. I approached this

young woman who I think at the time was a sophomore and I was like, "Hey,

I'm coming in as incoming freshmen, wondering if we can connect so that I just

didn't feel super alone." and she was very grateful, friendly, and welcomed me in

and said, "We should definitely connect when you're here." And that young woman was

named Alison Lin, who is also a Tri Delta.

She was like, "Have you ever considered joining a sorority?" And I was like, "No,

what's that?" And it kind of showed me around. Actually, also another thing that

happened before classes even began was when I was previewing the school. I had the

opportunity to go and spend the night there and a couple of the hosts were also

sorority girls. So I kind of had more of an idea of what it was like at Carnegie

Mellon specifically and they seemed really a wonderful, amazing, well connected with

the social life. So I thought this might be a good idea to to join. I love it.

They spotted you, knew you were a standout, and brought you along. I love it when

we do that. So you get done at college, and you go into advertising and brain

consulting in your career, that's the first thing you do. Tell me a little bit

about what that looked like. - Yes, so during my junior year, I had an opportunity

to do an internship at an advertising agency in New York City. So this was part of

a multicultural advertising intern program where we were placed in the best agencies

really in New York. So the ones that were covering just great global clients, I

really fell in love with that work early on. And after graduating, I knew that I

wanted to go to New York to be a part of that industry, to work on all these

creative brands, businesses, kind of get immersed in a lot of different types of

businesses and brands at that early stage. So I got a job with the,

in 2006, I landed a job with the agency that just happened to be named agency of

the year. So that was exciting. And a, but the account that I was on,

well, actually it was, it was actually a really fun one, it was Jaguar cars. So

that was, that was the account that I was working on as an account executive,

which I quickly realized I would rather go into the strategy side. So I started

developing the skills and account planning market research to ultimately move me into

that position at that agency. Yeah, it Yeah, I really liked the work at the time,

but part of me felt like there could be more,

like I really wanted more purpose and meaning in the types of clients that I wanted

to pursue. So after a little bit of time there, I jumped to a different boutique

agency where we specialized in changing trendy millennials when we were all still

very much younger, but this was like 15 years ago. And in through there,

that's when I kind of realized like my passion was in food and sustainable food

systems. And during that time, I started in a half show as well. Okay,

so this is where we're going to make the connection around around your passion,

which is you have a passion for food. Maybe talk a little bit about that and how

you brought those two together and how it turned into this blog. - Yeah, I met my

now husband, then boyfriend in the city and we moved in together and we started

cooking a lot, eating out a lot. And of course, New York has such a diverse array

of foods. And so we did a lot of exploration together and I think that's how I

got started in doing some food blogging. Ultimately, there were three things that

came to mind before starting my oyster blog, which was reading a book about oysters

by Rowan Jacobson. It's called A Geography of Oysters. If anybody wants to get on

the topic, that's like a really good place to start. I also joined a New York

Oyster Lovers Meetup group, which is a lot of fun. We would just go to different

oyster bars around the city and have these amazing tasting menus curated by these

top chefs of raw oysters, dressed oysters, and sometimes they even showed off with

like a oyster dessert. And then finally, we did this great trip to San Francisco

where I got a chance to visit Hog Island Oyster Farm. And after those three things,

I kind of was convinced that the topic of oysters, which is so fascinating, and I

loved eating them that I wanted to learn more. So it was really to kind of

document my adventures along the way. But being the curious person that I am,

I started asking just a lot of questions to the chefs who didn't know how to

answer me. So they directed me to their wholesalers who then ultimately directed me

to the producers themselves. And when I got to my first oyster farm,

it was kind of life -changing. I thought that it was a Martha's Vineyard on the

Cape and it was just very eye -opening, like the type of work that needs to happen

in order to bring that type of product to market.

And none of that was being told at the raw bar. So I was just thinking to myself,

like why do I bring these stories to life in my blog. So do you remember your

first oyster? Yes, but it was when I was a teenager. So my I remembered this

clearly. I was 15. I was visiting an uncle who lives in San Diego. And that's

Rila. Yeah, okay. Perfect. So was this like bit like this very cool seafood

restaurant on a pier maybe, and they had a really extensive oyster menu.

And at that age, you know, uncle was treating some like, well, let's go to town.

Let's try all the oysters. And I ordered, you know, the whole menu for the table.

And I distinctly remember liking some of them a lot and not liking some other ones

very much. And that that kind of stuck with me. That was my first raw oyster

experience. but it wasn't until like maybe almost 10 years later in New York City

when we got a chance to enjoy Oyster happy hours in the city.

So all these amazing bars and restaurants were doing Oyster happy hours and then

that's where I came back to trying new ones and then finally like remembering what

I was trying. Okay, that's awesome. I just wonder if you remember sort of where

that spark came from at the beginning. And now, what's the status of the blog?

How's it going? Where have you taken it? - It's, wow. So it's been quite some time

since 2009. I have kept up the blogging to a point, I am the world's slowest

writer to be honest. So it's, every post will take months.

These trips like I do, I digest the information a lot and kind of been very

thoughtful about the output. So the blog has always been up and running.

I haven't written much between like 2020 to 2025.

Like of course, all these things just happened in my life during that time, but I

was still active very much on Instagram. I think Instagram kind of took over after

a while as my main publication publication or platform to use. In -a -half -shell has

now, I suppose, become one of the authorities on global oyster appreciation.

A lot of people who are curious about oysters but don't know much about them find

in -a -half -shell and can learn more, as the same way that I did when I was just

starting out, you know, I had a book, I had some questions, and my blog helps

answer a lot of them for consumers.

I would say after spending about a decade in advertising,

I decided at that time I was ready to try and pursue something different, which was

to do my own consulting. And it was also the time when I thought I could develop

in a half -shell into a more robust platform and also maybe try my hand at creating

some products that would supplement the blog itself, like Oyster Tasting Journal and

your Oyster Map, and then started doing my own Oyster Tasting classes in the city.

So I would host these classes in restaurants or in pop -up spaces where I would

take people through three different oysters, tell them the stories of each of these

oysters, the same way that you would do with wine and also pair them with wine as

well. So I did that for a couple of years until I was recruited by a seafood

company to become their director of global marketing. And at the time, so this was

an interesting pivot because I thought I had, I was pretty happy doing consulting on

my own, but then on the flip side, this opportunity would allow me to understand

that global seafood supply chain from the producer's point of view. And I thought

that would be really valuable experience. So then I accepted thinking naively, because

this wasn't oyster farming. This is actually a fish farming company. I was naive

thinking how different could they be? And it's truly like night and day, like the

difference between vegetable farming and

You know, it that's that's dramatic, but I spent eight years there and along the

way I really developed a robust understanding of the seafood supply chain and also

the challenges and opportunities that producers would face as well as consumers and

how they would approach seafood especially in the US where seafood consumption is

actually surprisingly low compared to a lot of other countries around the world.

So first of all, like you can sense your just your curiosity about this topic and

maybe all topics. I feel like this is maybe how you approach things in general,

which is so it's so

infectious I think like you just want to dig and learn more. And it's so

interesting to sort of hear you talk about how you you dug in, and then you learn

this, and then it took you here. Which I love is sort of a life map, we plan

things out. And then our curiosity gets the best of us. And we end up doing

something we never knew we'd we do. So it's fun to hear about your journey and how

this all sort of played out. And and how you've turned it into so many different

things. I'm just I'm fascinated by that as well. Because I think it's because I

think it's hard to find a new angle on things, but it sounds like you're sort of

constantly doing that. And one of the things you did that was new was this oyster

master guild. Why don't you talk a little bit about that and how that came about,

you creating this whole new organization. - Yeah, well, as I was blogging and

starting to become more of a, less of a consumer and documenter of oyster culture,

I started wanting to improve it in ways like educating and kind of putting more

knowledge out there in the space for people to kind of improve, level up their half

shell experience is how I would position it. I ultimately felt like I became a

consumer who knew too much and so whenever I would go to these oyster bars and

high -end seafood restaurants, I would get so frustrated with how badly the oysters

are shocked and how little the servers knew about oysters. And I was just like

stunned because it takes years and years of hard work for these growers to bring

that oyster to market for only a shocker to completely massacre the oyster on your

plate and then for the server not to know where they come from. I thought that was

just kind of criminal to be honest and it wasn't going to be sustainable for the

business.

So oyster mastery guild came for me came out of that frustration of wanting to

create something better.

and you can learn so much about wine from wine sommeliers and even like your

favorite barista, being able to bring like a coffee to life for you or your cheese

monger telling you about these amazing stories about these different cheeses and how

they're produced, what the animals are eating and how that impacts the flavor.

Chocolate is another one, beer is another one. And it's like, why couldn't you do

this with oysters? I think you could and lo and behold, there were several other

people who had the same idea. One in particular is my co -founder, Patrick McMurray,

who is a World Oyster Champion Shucker.

He is an author on an Oyster book. He had several successful Oyster bars in

Toronto. He's kind of considered one of the OGs of the oyster scene, like in the

90s. And he and I met in Ireland at the World Oyster Opening Championship in

Galway. You think the fuck up? No, I kid you not. This was-- the oyster world is

small. So all these things, like, they all kind of make sense. And we all somehow

find each other. And we kept in touch. And Patrick and I, we were kind of

approaching this idea from those two different perspectives, him from the hospitality

side, me from a consumer and storytelling side. And in 2023,

we finally decided after circling around this idea for a while, like to finally do

it. It was very, I was very, very lucky or we were very lucky to get an early

break in national media that we did. So what had happened was we had this concept

and we were shopping around. I was just telling some of my most trusted oyster

friends like oyster bar owners, growers about what we intended to do and the people

were very receptive to it. One organization in particular got really,

really excited and the general manager at a restaurant called Crave Fish Bar on the

upper west side of Manhattan. He was just, he was just laser focused. As soon as

he heard, you know, there could be a Oyster Somalia course and certification, like

he was in like, this is what I want to do. That's what I want to be. And so he

started telling his customers about it. And one of them happened to be the editor

-in -chief of USA today. So this ended up being a big story that they chased,

they turned into a podcast for them. And that was in 2023. And so at the time,

we're like, Patrick, we kind of have to do this now, because yeah,

we had the we had the concept, right, but it was just about putting it down on

paper. It's like, we have to do this. And, and I figured out I had to learn very

quickly how online learning management systems worked. But it was,

you know, after a pandemic, everybody was doing webinars, zooms, like people were

used to learning things online. So I'm like, that seems like it could be a no

-brainer, right? Like online learning, we can do a live session first, record it,

edit it, and then put the rest of the courses online. And that's how it all

started. So now a couple years in I think we've just had our fifth hundredth

student enroll in like our collection of courses and we've gotten about 130 level

one certified oyster ambassadors from over 13 countries around the world.

So it's been pretty exciting to see you know how we've been able to attract the

same level of enthusiasm and curiosity that we have to the world of oysters. I love

that. Okay, so I'm going to go to expert. I'm going to go from expert to beginner

here for a minute. I have an assumption that's probably wrong now that I've heard

you talk about your first oyster experience, but you either love oysters or you

don't. And I don't know if that's true or not. You that your first time you had

some you liked a lot and some you didn't like a lot. So do you have advice for

somebody, like somebody's listening, they've never had an oyster, they have no idea

what this is about. What is your advice to them to sort of start down this road

and start trying oysters? - Yeah, that's a great question. And you're not wrong,

oysters are very polarizing. So I think you're never like neutral, like this is a

which meh about oysters. You really do, you're either a big fan or you're very

reluctant about oysters because they're not a hot dog, right? (laughing) - I'm pretty

opinionated about hot dogs. (laughing) - That's fair, no apple, not slice of pizza.

But I think because I grew up in Shanghai where a lot of the cuisine is centered

around seafood, I think I just grew up at a young age eating all sorts of types

of seafood that I was very familiar and happy with the the texture and those types

of flavors. Other people I will say probably did not grow up next to seafood or

were not exposed to it at an early age and so I think the flavors and the

textures are very very new to them. And if you're that kind of person, completely

understand it's going to be a little bit of maybe an uphill battle or just,

you know, taking that your first roller coaster and seeing how it goes. But I would

suggest if you didn't want to start maybe and a little squeamish about texture, try

and cook oysters first so that the texture is a little bit firmer and the flavor

is mild and layered with dressings that just make the oysters you know very yummy

but if you want to do a raw one starting small starting mild is where I would

suggest you going so hopefully if you go to an oyster bar maybe that has one of

our certified specialists they will be able to direct you to a delicate tasting

oyster and then you can decide from there if you if you like that or not

So I think that's how I would approach it. But I would say, you know, from a

nutrition side, you really can't eat a healthier food. Oysters are so nutritionally

dense, they're very sustainable and they just do, they're just good.

There's nothing to dislike really about them. So on that end, I would say, I would

encourage everybody to give it a shot. - Love it. I'm thinking about the two kids

in my house and like my one adventurous eater and my one who is happy with mac

and cheese and how different people approach food So I think that's a good entry

point. So thanks for that You have been obviously all over the world. You've lived

and worked all over the place One of the things I know you keep going down

different roads But another road that you've been down is something called aqua

culture So I wanted to give you a chance to tell us what that is and how you've

learned it affects the taste and quality of seafood. Absolutely. Like I mentioned, I

spent eight years as the global marketing director for a seafood company. They were

aquaculture company raising fin fish in the ocean. I would say that aquaculture is

as vast as agriculture. Basically, it's essentially agriculture but just done in the

water. So you're cultivating plants, different mollusks, shrimp,

crustaceans, finfish in the water in a controlled environment. You're raising them

from the very beginning, from like hatchlings to seed to growing them out to

harvesting that entire cycle is what aquaculture is. And with that,

I would say there's The taste and quality of farmed seafood ultimately depends on

how and where it's grown. So farmed seafood inherently isn't better or worse than

wild harvested or wild forage seafood. As long as you can know what the animal is

eating and how it's being treated. So in the world of seafood,

there is a commercial divide I would say and timing between when farm seafood is

available and wild seafood is available and you can do things right or wrong in

either case. For oysters in particular and for actually all mollusks, the unique

thing about them is that people don't have to feed them anything. We place them in

the water and they're filter feeding phytoplankton And what that means is that with

a wild oyster and a farmed oyster is essentially eating the same thing. It's that

the difference is the farmed oyster is being kind of manicured, being kept clean,

being protected from predators, being washed regularly, being handled,

so that they grow to be this beautiful, perfect shape that is ideal for the half

-shell market. Wild oysters are seasonal. Farmed oysters can be available year long.

Wild oysters are kind of wonky shaped, so it makes it very challenging for shuckers

to open sometimes. Farmed oysters are now just like, they basically open themselves.

You don't have to use a lot of force or anything. They're just really nice, like

the well -curated brands are. So from a taste standpoint,

I'd say the flavors that you're going to get between the two are going to be

virtually the same. You might get a little bit more sweetness and fatness in a

farmed oyster just because they have been pampered and conditioned to have really

good meat content, whereas it can be a bit more variable with wild oysters. And the

quality, like I mentioned, the shuckability, if you will, is a quality indicator in

the biz. Because when you imagine oyster bars having to go through thousands of

oysters, you really want them to be consistent and easy to open and also have a

good shelf life, which is another key factor. So that's just one piece of the big

puzzle of aquaculture. But ultimately, I think that farming the oceans is the part

of the future of our food system and we need to think about how to do it

responsibly and kind of do it in a way that allows like our wild fisheries to

recover. And yeah, I think that's what it all comes out to.

Yeah, there's a lot packed in there. Shuckability. That's a new word for all of us.

So I assume like you didn't grow up thinking someday.

I guess I've always been a kind of person, I think I was raised to be the kind

of person to just give things a shot and with no expectations, I don't think that

it hurts by any means and maybe down the road when you pursue something that you're

interested in and it doesn't seem to pan out, it might actually have like have some

purpose indirectly to to something else that you're doing. For example, I think that

I've been able to cultivate a lot of cool skills in college,

not directly related to a lot of my business courses, but through design, like being

able to put together marketing materials, a website on my own, that's been very

helpful as a small business owner and in my marketing positions. And then also

learning about other industries, I think is really fascinating where you can maybe if

you learn about two very different things and happen to find something that

Intersects in the middle. That's where like these new ideas come from is putting two

different things together so for people who you know are Dabbling,

I guess it's I guess the biggest lesson is like don't be afraid to look stupid

because because you're gonna and you just have to get over it in order to put

yourself out there and learn right and that's I think I think it's really the fear

of being wrong making mistake looking idiotic is what's holding people back from from

discovering the things that they will ultimately love yeah that's great advice. Is

there anything that you learned in Tri Delta that still shows up for you today in

your work or your life and the things that you're doing? I think being in Tri Delta

and being in that kind of organization has really taught me a lot about teamwork,

about working with different types of people. I think it prepares you quite well or

just life outside of college, you know, where you have to deal with a lot of

different people, different types of businesses, how you manage conflict, how you

manage deadlines sometimes. So I think it's delivered like a lot of interesting

professional skills. And of course, I do have very good friends who were my sorority

sisters that I still keep in touch with in the city like the one who introduced me

to Tri Delta. I just had dinner with her in the city when she was in town for

business and also several others who have really you know we kind of share that

common bond but also shared values that we we discovered while in college.

I love that. What is next for you? Where do you take it from here? Oh gosh well

O &G is my full -time thing. We have been working on developing a four level

program. So similar to wine education, some of the top wine educators have a

structured program like that. We have one as well. We're about to launch our level

three, which is the first professional standard in the oyster service industry.

So I guess that's going to be trying to define something new, setting a benchmark

for what good oyster service and presentation is and what we hope oyster bars will

strive to. I kind of joke around saying like it's really a selfish endeavor because

all I want to do is go into any oyster bar and have a really nicely shoved

platter of oysters and have people who know what they're talking about so I can

enjoy it but hopefully others will be able to do that as well once once we get a

lot of new people through this program and I think that will be the focus for the

next year or so and we will see my vision my dream would be to have like an

award for oyster people, oyster professionals and oyster is the same way like James

Beard. Does there are boards? I think there should be one for oyster service and

oyster hospitality. - Yeah, I love it. I just need you to know in the future now,

I'm seeing a Tri Delta event in New York where you lead everybody through an oyster

tasting. So that is coming. - I'm ready. - Out of my dreams.

- Well, I want to make sure our listeners can find you and follow you and learn

more about what you're up to. So where can they sort of reach out and connect with

you? - My personal Instagram is probably the best in a half -shellist is my handle.

Oyster Master Guild is Oyster Master Guilds on Instagram and the two websites are in

a halfshell .com and OysterMasterGuild .com. - Okay, - Great. Well, I hope anyone out

there interested in oysters goes and learns a little bit more about Julie and what

she's up to. I cannot thank you enough for coming and sharing with us today. This

was a fun conversation. I should ask you one more question. Did you learn anything

interesting about the pearl and how it's made all of this? - So I hate to be the

bearer of bad news maybe a little bit, but the oysters that we eat are not the

same ones that produce the pretty pearls.

That species is a saltwater tropical oyster,

specifically bred farmed to develop those pearls. However,

you can find odd -looking pearls in some oysters. There's definitely,

I follow a lot of shockers on Instagram, and some of them just get so lucky with

how many pearls that they find in oysters. It's, I almost think like it's been

strategically placed there for VR value, but who knows.

But a pearl is, yeah, the pearl is-- - Fair, we know it's rare, so. - Yes, rare

and a really fun novelty, definitely something we're telling a story about in the

restaurant, Rob R. - Well, thank you so much for joining us. This has been so fun.

We wish you all the best and hope to see you soon on some future event. It's in

my mind. It's going to happen. It is going to happen. I have no doubt. Well,

thanks for being with us today and thanks to everybody else for joining us and

listening in. Such a fun conversation. I hope that all of you are connected to

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Love.