Wes Berry

The Kentucky Barbecue Book is the product of my lifelong enthusiasm for meats deliciously prepared, especially country hams, charcuterie, and animals cooked over wood. Our family butchered hogs during my youth, so I grew up eating homemade sausage and ham. Watching The Travel Channel and Food Network shows on "America's Best Barbecue," which until recently never said squat about Kentucky, made me want to travel over our state to see how we measure up to the Big 4 places always featured on those shows. Now I've eaten at just shy of 200 Kentucky barbecue places, some of them multiple times. The book features detailed descriptions of places I considered good to excellent for quality of barbecue, including stories gathered from many long conversations with barbecue people. I grew up in rural Kentucky, my geography mostly confined to a single county except when traveling afar (to another county) for high school sporting events. Childhood was a long summer of baseball practice, tobacco cultivation, pond fishing, and country church revivals. In high school I hauled lots of hay for $3/hour. I was going to skip college but a summer working in the pressroom of a magazine factory prompted me to give it a try. I loved it so much I decided to make a career of it. Now I'm a fairly-educated rube professing American literature and environmental humanities at Western Kentucky University. I'm fortunate to teach courses like Southern Literature and Kentucky Literature, sharing with students our deep rich literary and cultural traditions. May the Pork be with you! Twitter: @hungryprofessor Instagram: thehungryprofessor Facebook: Wes Berry's Kentucky Barbecue Adventures Youtube: wbkogolocal (wbko go local)--short videos of Kentucky/Tennessee food and culture, including a Kentucky barbecue playlist