Congratulations to Chapel Hill authors John Shelton Reed and Dale Vollberg Reed, and publisher University of North Carolina Press! Their book “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue” is one of three finalists in the American category for the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ cookbook awards. The winners will be announced April 4. I’ve read the book, and its one of those rare combinations of exhaustive research and just, plain fun. Yes, they really did have to eat all that ‘cue – poor things.

I will also note with some regional pride that two of the three cookbooks nominated in the American category are Southern. The second is “Bon Appetit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking” by Virginia Willis, who grew up in Georgia and Louisiana.