James Beard Semifinalists

The James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists (pdf) for their 2009 Restaurant and Chef Award's a few days ago.  It's a list that seems more useful for the layman and casual eater than the finalists and eventual winners (they rarely seem to be surprises) as, it goes without saying, it is more expansive in both number and locale.  The usual suspects are all there but there are also a lot of chefs and restaurants who won't make it to the final cut because they are a little out of the way (as far as the culinary world is concerned) and under reported - the long list of rising stars is especially nice.  Which is an apt enough description of our home city, which happens to be fairly well represented at this stage of the game and your city might be as well so take a look.

Aside:  Am I right in thinking that they don't, but should, announce semifinalists for the media, journalism, author, and design categories?