Pig BeachMatt Abdoo

Matt Abdoo is the Executive Chef & Partner of the critically-acclaimed Pig Beach BBQ restaurant collection, with locations in Brooklyn and Queens, New York and Palm Beach, Florida, with construction of a new Louisville, Kentucky location underway.  He is a frequent guest chef on NBC’s TODAY, and often appears as a celebrity guest or judge on Food Network programs such as Beat Bobby Flay, Kitchen Expedition, Battle of the Brothers, Kitchen Crash, and more. 

Both an award-winning pitmaster and classically-trained fine-dining chef, Matt Abdoo (Del Posto) first made his mark in the competitive barbecue scene at the 2015 Memphis in May World Championship, earning both the 1st Place Poultry and 2nd Place Whole Hog titles as part of team Salty Rinse—captained by future Pig Beach BBQ partner Rob Shawger—at what was their very first appearance.  In 2016, team Salty Rinse joined forces with the highly-competitive team Ribdiculous Bar-B-Krewe, captained by Balthazar alum Shane McBride, to launch Pig Beach in Brooklyn. Since then, these masters of meat have continued to win big across the country, taking home the Burger Bash “People’s Choice” award at both the NYC Wine & Food Festival in 2016 and 2019, and the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in 2021, where they also won two additional “Heinz Best-Dressed Burger” titles for the veritable triple crown. 

Raised in an extremely tight-knit Lebanese-Italian family in Upstate New York, Matt continues to celebrate his diverse upbringing through globally-inspired barbecue recipes and techniques. In May 2022, Matt Abdoo and Pig Beach BBQ partner Shane McBride released the Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook: Smoked, Grilled, Roasted, and Sauced (HarperCollins), which has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and more.