As it appears on northforker.com
by Parker Schug on November 13th, 2025
Slow Food USA, a non-profit organization, sprung from a movement against a fast-food franchise being built at the bottom of Rome’s Spanish Steps in 1989.
Closer to home, the same values of good, clean and fair food are being celebrated by Slow Food East End, who recently recognized the tried-and-true efforts of Matt Ketcham’s Peconic Gold Oysters with their Snail of Approval award. Peconic Gold is the first in the oyster farming category to receive the award.
“The oyster business, in general, is healthy for the waters,” says Maria McBride, chair of Slow Food East End. “It has a lot of beneficial relationships to aquaculture, but not every oyster farmer is as discerning. They [Peconic Gold] have a spectacular product. They are very engaged with not only the product they produce in their farm but also their local community too.”
Ketcham produces about 3 to 4 million oysters a year using very strict standards, says McBride. As a kid, he had always been fascinated by the waterfront and fishing and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in aquaculture and fisheries’ technology from the University of Rhode Island in 2009.
“Since then, he’s built this business and it’s pretty phenomenal,” says McBride.
Upon being recognized, Ketcham was honored and speechless. “It’s a labor of love,” he says.
The East End chapter of Slow Food USA was founded in 2004 by a group of locals who appreciated food raised in good soils, by people with fair labor practices, who were engaged in the community.
The group gave their first Snail of Approval award in 2014 in efforts to shine light on the people and places with those same values.
“How local is the sourcing; how environmentally friendly is the practice of a business; where do they fit into our food world here; what kind of community work do they do; what’s it like to work there; do they retain employees; do they involve the employees in the management and ideas that shape the practice?” says McBride.
The first East End restaurant to earn the award was North Fork Table & Inn under the previous ownership of Chef Gerry Hayden. Slow Food East End later expanded the award to include farmers, wineries and, in recent years, local hospitals like Peconic Bay Medical Center and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for their quality of food and focus on local produce.
Nominations for the Snail of Approval come in from Slow Food East End board members, community members, or the businesses themselves. From there, the non-profit does a deep dive into how these businesses emulate ‘slow food’ principles.
“We do a pretty intensive interview, which is really just a conversation with the business to find out what they do that’s different and special and to get to know them,” says McBride. “One of the things that’s a consistent thread is the pride that all of the businesses take in the work that they do.”
Peconic Gold is one of about 10 businesses to receive a Snail of Approval award this year.