Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Note: this article originally appeared last year in The Smoke Sheet, a fantastic national barbecue newsletter that I regularly contribute to. For more information on how to subscribe, visit bbqnewsletter.com.

Monk: You may know Pitmaster Kevin Bludso as a judge on two seasons of Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown,” competing in season 1 of “BBQ Brawl,”or perhaps from his 10 appearances as a consulting chef on “Bar Rescue.” Before that, he made his name smoking barbecue in his hometown of Compton, CA at Bludso’s BBQ where the restaurant grew to as many as four locations in and around the Los Angeles area.

But as readers of “Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook” will find out, this California boy is just as much influenced by the town of Corsicana, TX where he spent summers working with and watching his “Granny” (technically his aunt) Willie Mae Fields operate an illegal BBQ restaurant and juke joint out of her house with his Aunt Jean and Aunt Alice. In addition to teaching Bludso how to cook barbecue “from the heart,” she also helped feed and take care of the community. Bludso still cooks briskets the same way his Granny taught him to this day 

Bludso begins his book by spending the first 30 or so pages telling that story as well as the story of his upbringing in the Watts neighborhood of Compton. From his Black Panther mother and LAPD father to his Uncle Kaiser who was an early barbecue teacher for his family to his Aunt Beulah who stepped in to raise his mom’s family when his grandmother was killed, Bludso came from a big family that influenced his barbecue journey.

Bludso then divides the rest of the book into the chapters by category. Some of them are the typical barbecue chapters on rubs, pits, meats, sides, and desserts but where Bludso differentiates his cookbook are the chapters that are curveballs. He spends nearly as much time on chapters for fusion barbecue, soul food, seafood, sides, breakfast, and holidays. This is truly his cooking style in cookbook form.

Bludso’s big personality is evident throughout the book, and he is not shy about using profanity so readers be warned if that’s something that might bother you. That being said, you can tell his voice has been captured unfiltered in these pages and credit for that is surely due Bludso as well as his co-author Noah Galuten. I would imagine the end result is the book he wanted to write in the way he wanted to write it.

“Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook” joins other notable books from black voices that have been released in recent years: “Black Smoke” by Adrian Miller in 2021, “Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ” by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie also in 2021, and most recently “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” by Ed and Ryan Mitchell with Zella Palmer in 2023. These four books help to fill out the black experience in barbecue and while all are worthy additions, there is still a lot more to be learned.