James Beard-winning Alabama chef is now a barbecue world champ, too

Alabama chef Adam Evans has more to his cooking repertoire than seafood and oysters.

Turns out, the James Beard-awarded chef and co-owner of Birmingham’s Automatic Seafood and Oysters also knows a thing or two about barbecue.

A year after winning a 2022 James Beard Award as the best chef in the South, Evans was part of the Grand Champion-winning Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe team at the 2023 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the Super Bowl of barbecue cookoffs. The winners of the week-long competition were announced Saturday.

The Grand Champion title is the top prize at Memphis in May, and the winning team takes home a $25,000 check, a trophy that stands shoulder-high, and barbecue bragging rights for the next 12 months.

“It was pretty amazing,” Evans said Monday afternoon. “It was a fun, fun weekend.”

Living up to their name, The Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe also finished first in the ribs category, which came with an additional $11,000 prize.

“Even if we would have just won first place in ribs, that would have been huge for us,” Evans said. “But we didn’t stop there. We won the whole thing.”

Founded by New York City chefs Shane McBride and Damon Wise, the Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe team has competed at Memphis in May since 2009.

Evans, who cooked with Wise at celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Craft restaurant several years before moving to Birmingham to open Automatic, has been a member of the team since the beginning.

“I’m one of the seven original teammates,” Evans said. “We did it because we all worked together for Tom Colicchio. The first year we went, Tom Colicchio funded it.

“So, we’ve been doing it for a long time, and it’s a really good time for us to get together.”

Other members include chefs from Los Angeles, Charleston and Austin.

This year, the Ribdiculous team added a couple of Memphis barbecue all-stars — pitmaster John David Wheeler, whose former team, Natural Born Grillers won the Grand Champion title in 2008, and his son, John Dalton Wheeler — to the lineup.

“These guys know Memphis barbecue,” Evans said. “We’ve got to give them a lot of props because they’re the ones that made it happen.”

A shout-out to Chris Lilly

The team from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur — the only five-time Grand Champion winner in Memphis in May history — finished first in the Kingsford Tour of Champions category this year.

The Big Bob Gibson team also finished third in the vinegar-based sauce category and sixth in the shoulder competition.

The Ribdiculous crew owes a debt of gratitude to Big Bob Gibson pitmaster Chris Lilly, Evans said.

McBride from the Ribdiculous crew met Lilly at a food festival about 15 years ago, Evans said, and McBride told Lilly he wanted to get a team into Memphis in May.

“Chris was like, ‘Come down to Big Bob’s, and I’ll help you get on the right track,’” Evans recalled.

“We went to Decatur and cooked ribs with Chris,” Evans added. “He did it all with us and helped us get to the point where we could compete.”

No barbecue restaurant for him

Unlike his Ribdiculous teammates McBride and Wise — who have parlayed their fine-dining background into opening barbecue restaurants of their own — Evans said he has no plans to venture into the barbecue business.

“I don’t think so,” he said, laughing. “Probably will not open a barbecue restaurant.”

Meanwhile, Evans is looking forward to next year, when the Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe will return to Memphis in May to defend its Grand Champion title.

“I think it’s gonna be fun to see what happens,” he said.

For the full list of the 2023 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest winners, go here.

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