Alabama BBQ restaurant wins world championship for pork shoulder

A renowned Alabama barbecue restaurant has won part of the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis this weekend, outperforming competitors for first place in the pork shoulder category.

Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ in Decatur has won 15 prior world barbecue championships for pork, brisket, ribs and chicken. Executive Chef Chris Lilly also returns to Alabama with a third-place win in the Kingsford Tour of Champions category which is selected by the general public.

Big Bob Gibson’s, founded in 1925 by Bob Gibson, who started cooking for friends and family with a hand-dug BBQ pit in his backyard, is well known for its smoked chicken with white sauce. Last year the Food Network named it Alabama’s best BBQ restaurant.

The Memphis competition’s grand champion for this year will be familiar to many residents of Alabama. The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was crowned a grand prize winner Saturday after hundreds of dedicated pitmasters sweated through smoke to be named the best in pork. The restaurant won the whole hog division and was named the grand champion in Memphis, Tennessee.

Considered one of the premiere cooking competitions in the U.S., the contest dates back to the 1970s. But as the so-called culinary sports expanded beyond local home cooks, the competition has become fiercer than ever.

More than $150,000 in prize money was awarded in numerous categories for the 129 cooking teams from 22 states and four foreign countries that competed in one of three main categories of ribs, shoulder and whole hog. There also were ancillary competitions like hot wings, poultry, beef and seafood.

But in Memphis, pork is always the main event.

Winners Brad Orrison and Brooke Lewis, siblings from Ocean Springs, have been competing for 17 years with The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint team, named for their restaurant. They now have won the grand championship three times.

“It’s the Super Bowl of swine. This is the trophy that everybody wants,” Orrison said.

Orrison, Lewis and their team on Friday prepared two Duroc hogs, each one carefully injected with marinades and laid over a bed of butter and bacon. They return every year to the cooking contest, which is part of the annual Memphis in May festival. It’s like a family reunion where they see friends from all over the country with a shared passion for barbecue.

“It’s like fierce friends and more fierce on the competitive side. Right? So we all support each other, but it stops on Saturday,” Lewis said. “Saturday you can hear a pin prick in the park.”

“What makes Memphis in May so difficult to judge is that everybody cooks the best food in the world, and they’re all here,” Orrison said. “So a judge could run into three teams that have made the most ultimate dreamy bite of barbecue.”