Austin New-School Barbecue Pitmaster Is Writing a Cookbook

The pitmaster of one of Austin’s best and exciting barbecue restaurants is going to be publishing a new cookbook. Evan LeRoy of new-school barbecue restaurant and food truck LeRoy & Lewis is writing New School Barbecue, which will publish sometime in 2026 under book distribution company Abrams Books.

The new book will include LeRoy’s techniques and recipes for cooking and smoking meats and vegetables with his new-school approaches pulling in techniques, ingredients, and flavors from around the world. The book will specifically include cauliflower and brisket, among other items. There will also be care taken to given information for all levels of cooks and pitmasters from beginners to experts.

This is LeRoy’s first cookbook, but not his first time sharing his cooking and smoking knowledge with the public. LeRoy & Lewis has a YouTube channel and Patreon membership service where he and the team share recipes and techniques. There’s also the New School BBQ University programs, with the next set of classes set for January 2025.

New School Barbecue is being co-written by Paula Forbes. She’s a noted cookbook author — she wrote the Austin Cookbook in 2018, collecting recipes from beloved restaurants and food trucks in the city; and most recently, she also co-wrote Cured: Cooking With Ferments, Pickles, Preserves, & More with San Antonio chef Steve McHugh, which published earlier this summer. She’s also the editor and writer of International Association of Culinary Professionals award-winning cookbook newsletter Stained Page News. And then she’s also an acclaimed food writer, as well as the founding editor of Eater Austin.

The Publishers Marketplace deal report announcing New School Barbecue dated on June 17 notes that the sale is a pre-empt, which means that the book deal was made early in the process because it’s a wanted title. Behind the deal is literary agent David Hale Smith, a member of literary agency InkWell Management. He also works with Jordan Mackay (who, among other books, co-authored all of Aaron Franklin’s cookbooks: Franklin Barbecue, Franklin Steak, and Franklin Smoke) and Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn.

LeRoy’s Austin barbecue career started as the founding pitmaster of now-closed restaurant and whiskey bar Freedmen’s in 2012. He left in 2016 with the goal of opening his own business. That ended up being the food truck version of LeRoy & Lewis, with co-owners Sawyer Lewis and Nathan Lewis (rounded out by Evan’s wife Lindsey LeRoy) in 2017. It won the Eater Austin Eater Award for best new food truck that same year. The four always had the goal of opening a physical restaurant, which finally happened earlier this February in Garrison Park.