In the Kitchen With: Adam Evans

Recently named “Best Chef South” by the James Beard Awards, Adam Evans opened Automatic Seafood and Oysters with his wife, designer Suzanne Humphries Evans, in Birmingham in 2019. As the name states, it’s a seafood restaurant with heavy emphasis on oysters and shines a particularly bright spotlight on Southern farmed oysters. The lauded chef is one of the Southern oyster farming community’s biggest champions. And yet, his first oyster experience was not pleasant. “I got sick,” he says.

A native of Alabama’s Muscle Shoals area, Evans watched his dad enjoying oysters when they’d visit the coast, so he finally asked to try one. “He loaded it up on a saltine with cocktail sauce and extra horseradish. I ate it, and then, felt bad,” he says. He assumed he was allergic to oysters. But when his cooking career took him to New Orleans, where the bivalves are almost ubiquitous, he decided he had to give them one more try. “I had some with just a squeeze of lemon, and I was fine,” he says. Turns out, he never had an oyster allergy. His body says “no thanks” to prepared horseradish.

Today, oysters are not just a personal passion; they are the foundation of his professional life at Automatic too. “I really fell in love with them,” he says. And then the surge of Southern oyster aquaculture only deepened his appreciation. “I always like to keep multiple oysters on the menu, which changes every day, but usually includes a traditional East coast oyster and three or four Gulf coast farmed oysters,” he says. “A lot of people think they only like the East coast oysters, thinking Southern oysters are these big, not very salty things. But with the farmed oysters, that’s just not the case. They hold up great against the others.”

He’s also thrilled by the growth he’s seeing in his home state’s oyster farming industry and hopes he can play a part in further promoting it. “The guys at Murder Point, Point aux Pins, Isle Dauphine: It is amazing how they’ve grown. They've been able to create this community and make it a livelihood and produce this amazing product,” he says. “I want to support and promote that any way I can.”

Grilled Oysters

Yield: 36 oysters

1 lb. butter, cubed
4 tbsp. garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. thyme, chopped
1/2 cup preserved lemon, finely chopped
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 lemons, halved and juiced (plus 1 lemon for plating)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup parsley leaves, chopped
2 tbsp. chives, chopped
1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 box rock salt
36 medium/large oysters, shucked, in shell

PREPARATION

Prepare a hot charcoal or wood-fire grill.
Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter completely melts and starts to foam, add garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, preserved lemon, salt, black pepper, and cayenne, and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat, add the lemon juice, Worcestershire, and set aside at room temperature.
In a medium bowl, combine parsley, chives, and cheese to be used when oysters are on the grill.
Fill a sheet pan with rock salt to use as a resting place as you shuck the oysters. (I always keep an empty container nearby when I’m shucking to reserve the liquid that might escape as you shuck. This liquid can be added back to the oysters that need it before they go onto the grill.) Using tongs, place half of the oysters directly onto the hot grill grate; as soon as they are placed, start spooning butter to fill up each shell. (The idea is that half of the oyster is braised in the butter and the other half gets a little crispy because of the heat.) As soon as the butter is boiling, and the edges of the oyster start to curl, sprinkle the herb/cheese mixture over the oysters and cook until cheese melts. Remove them from the grill and return them to the rock salt as they finish cooking, continuing to grill the other half.
Arrange oysters on a large platter, adding any remaining butter or herb/cheese mixture and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Serve immediately or they can be held for a few minutes in a hot oven.