First Places

Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh has won a 2005 Bert Greene Award for "Sex, Death and Oysters," a study of the oyster industry in the Houston area.

The contest is sponsored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals to honor excellence in food journalism. Walsh won in the newspaper category.

Walsh was also a finalist in the contest's best American cookbook category, for his book The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos.

And staff writer Josh Harkinson has been awarded the 2004 Environmental Reporting Award from the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club.

The award recognizes Harkinson's body of work during the past year, covering regional environmental issues ranging from wetland conversion to transportation to forestry management.