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 for food and beverage reporting and reviewing.

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

Cook submitted her piece from the July 28, 1994 Press — “The Church of the Immaculate Barbecue” — 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 in New York on May 5.

This article appears in Apr 13-19, 1995.