Several D.C.-area businesses and chefs made the list of semifinalists for the Oscars of the food world.

Thamee and Rooster & Owl are both up for best new restaurant of the year.

Furstenberg is the D.C. area’s only James Beard award-winning chef this year.

For Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic

For the food nerd set, the James Beard Awards are akin to the Oscars. Sunday night, media awards were handed out, and The Washington Post was the winner of the best newspaper food section this year. Tonight, the winners of the restaurant industry portion will be announced. You can follow the announcements as they happen on The James Beard Foundation’s Twitter feed starting at 6 p.m. Look out for local nominees: Outstanding Chef Award…

Photo by ep_jhu. Locavore’s Delight Alice Waters finally got her wish last Friday when Michelle Obama and a gaggle of students from Bancroft Elementary picked up shovels and hoes and set about planting an organic vegetable garden on the White House’s South lawn. Waters and other proponents of sustainable food are understandably ecstatic, and White House chefs Cristeta Comerford, Sam Kass, and Bill Yosses are looking forward to whipping up some tasty meals from…

If DCist hears one more person talk about how great Breadline is, we’ll scream. We’ll scream a “here’s where Cameron goes berserk” scream. Sure, the lunch spot on the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW turns out what it should turn out: decent and sometimes exceptional bread. But the quality of what’s inside those breads and what’s served alongside them (and, some say, the bread itself) has diminished significantly — especially since the French chain…