Cook Is Beard Finalist

Houston Press staff writer Alison Cook has been nominated as a finalist in two categories of the prestigious James Beard Journalism Awards. The Beard journalism awards -- established in 1992 by the James Beard Foundation -- are among the highest honors that can be bestowed for food and beverage reporting and reviewing.

Cook is one of three nominees for the newspaper restaurant reviewing award. The other finalists are Maria Hodgson of the New York Observer and Patricia Wells of the International Herald Tribune.

Cook submitted her pieces from the July 28, 1994 Press -- "The Church of the Immaculate Barbecue" and "Tempting Tapas" -- in the restaurant reviewing category. That submission also resulted in Cook being named as a finalist for the Beard competition's M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. The other nominees are Sally Schneider and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum, both for work in Saveur magazine.

Winners will be announced at the James Beard Journalism Awards dinner in New York on May 5.