The James Beard Foundation has just announced their semifinalists for the 2013 chef and restaurant awards. To be clear, this is not a list of nominees, but rather a list from which the nominees will be chosen.

L.A. has quite a showing, in the national categories as well as in our region.

For Best New Restaurant (national), BierBeisl and Tar & Roses are on the semifinalist list. (See our review of BierBeisl here and Tar & Roses here).

For Outstanding Bar Program (national), The Varnish and Rivera are on the list.

For Outstanding Chef (national), Suzanne Goin and Nancy Silverton are on the list.

For Outstanding Pastry Chef (national) Karen Hatfield is the lone L.A. contender.

For Outstanding Restaurant (national), Patina and Melisse made the cut.

For Outstanding Restaurateur (national), Piero Selvaggio of the Valentino restaurant Group (Valentino, Valentino Vin Bar) and Caroline Styne of Lucques, Tavern, and A.O.C. are on the list.

For Outstanding Service (national), Providence is our only contender.

For Rising Star Chef Of The Year (national), the category for chefs 30 and under, BierBeisl's Bernhard Mairinger and Night + Market's Kris Yenbamroong are on the shortlist.

In Best Chef, West, the L.A. shortlisted chefs are Bäco Mercat's Josef Centeno, Providence's Michael Cimarusti, Tar & Roses' Andrew Kirschner, MB Post's David LeFevre, Rivera and Playa's John Sedlar, Animal's Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, and Mo-Chica's Ricardo Zarate.

From here, Beard judges vote to decide nominees. Nominees will be announced on March 18, and winners will be announced at the James Beard Awards ceremony in May. Congrats to the shortlisted chefs!

You can see the full list of semifinalists here.

And in somewhat related news:

– Where the Chefs Eat: Night + Market's Kris Yenbamroong (Otherwise Known as Banh Mi Santa Claus)

– Where The Chefs Eat: Andrew Kirschner of Tar & Roses

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