James Beard Award nominees announced

Twitter was a-buzz this morning as news of the final nominees for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced. Essentially the culinary equivalent of the Oscars, the awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs and journalists from around the country for their contributions to the field and for emphasizing "the Foundation's mission: to celebrate, preserve, and nurture America's culinary heritage and diversity."

The area's kitchen talent earned a bunch of nominations. Jose Andres again got a nod for the Outstanding Chef award, his third nomination in the category. Amanda Cook, pastry chef at CityZen, was nominated in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category, another national award. Komi's Johnny Monis is up for the Rising Star of the Year Award, a prize for a chef who is 30 or younger. (Monis has been nominated for this award twice before.)

In the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category, Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve, Peter Pastan of Obelisk and Bryan Voltaggio of Volt are up against Philadelphia chefs Jeff Michaud of Osteria and Michael Solomonov from Zahav.

Also in James Beard news, local pastry hotshot David Guas was nominated for his cookbook "DamGoodSweet." The Kojo Nnamdi Show was nominated in the Audio Webcast or Radio Show Category. The Washington City Paper's Tim Carman was nominated for Newspaper Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or chefs (for this incredible piece). Finally, The Washington Post Food section was nominated in the Newspaper Food Section category. (We're blushing.)

-- Julia Beizer