Amersfoort chef finds his first pearl after 32 years of working with oysters

Chef Marco Blok of restaurant Mei in Amersfoort struck gold, or close to it. After 32 years of working with oysters in his kitchen, he found his first pearl. “At first, I thought it was a growth. Then I found out what it really was: Huh, a pearl!” Blok said to the newspaper AD.

Only about 1 in 15,000 wild oysters contain a pearl. Pearls start out as a grain of sand or a tiny piece of seaweed the oyster accidentally sucked into its shell. This small bit of foreign matter irritates the shellfish, so it covers it with a thin layer of mother-of-pearl. It continues to do so as long as the dirt remains, slowly creating a pearl over a period of years.

The value of a pearl can range from 30,000 euros for an almost-perfect one to 10 euros for a small pearl with many imperfections.

After the luck of finding a pearl, Boer immediately went to buy a lottery ticket.