The District’s dining and drinking denizens have reason to toast each other today, after several of them were named as finalists for 2010 James Beard Foundation awards. Not only did a D.C.-area chef or restaurant make it into some of the heavy-hitter categories — José Andrés for Outstanding Chef of the Year (again!) and Johnny Monis of Komi for Rising Star Chef of the Year (also again!) — some chefs were honored for the first time. Amanda Cook from CityZen is a finalist for the award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, while others will be competing against their neighbors in the Mid-Atlantic category.

The Best Chef-Mid Atlantic competition is coming down to a battle between Philly vs. the D.C. metro area. (That is, if you count Frederick, Md. as part of our metro area, which we were admittedly doing during the most recent season of Top Chef.) Frederick’s Bryan Voltaggio of Volt, Cathal Armstrong of Alexandria’s Restaurant Eve and Peter Pastan of Obelisk in the District will square off against two Philly chefs: Jeff Michaud of Osteria and Michael Solomonov of Zahav.

In the Food Writing area, finalists include Washington City Paper’s Tim Carman, the Washington Post Food section, and WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show. WBJ also notes that the locally produced public television show Chefs A’Field: King of Alaska and area pastry chef David Guas’s book DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style, are also finalists.