Beard nominations: They're not just for chefs

When it comes to the James Beard Foundation awards, announced today, we know you probably care most about the chef and restaurant category, covered aptly by our Going Our Gurus, but some Washington people have scored some nominations in the media and cookbook awards competitions, too.

Tim Carman at Washington City Paper earned his first Beard nomination in the category of best newspaper feature story about restaurants and/or chefs for “How Not to Hire a Chef,” which also made it into the most recent edition of “Best Food Writing.” The compelling piece details the unconventional process Andy Shallal undertook to find a chef for his new restaurant, Eatonville. Carman is up against Jared Jacang Maher of Westword and Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune.

In the broadcast category, Kojo Nnamdi and crew were nominated for their eponymous WAMU 88.5 talk show, which features food content on Wednesdays. They’re up against Lynne Rosetto Kasper & Co. from the Splendid Table (including producer Sally Swift, who recently relocated to Washington); and the team behind Eight Forty-Eight in Chicago.

Now for the shameless self-promotion: We here at the Post’s Food section earned our second nomination in the category of best newspaper food section, an award we won last year. This time, our competitors are Sheryl Julian of the Boston Globe and Jon Bonne and Miriam Morgan of the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the cookbook awards, pastry chef David Guas scored a nomination in the baking category for his first book, co-written with Raquel Pelzel, “DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style.” He's up against James Peterson for "Baking" and Peter Reinhart for "Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day."

See the full list of nominees here. The awards will be announced May 2 in New York City.

-- Joe Yonan