The nominations are out for what one Top Chef recently called "the Oscars of cooking," the James Beard Foundation Awards, and two Honolulu restaurants have been nominated.
Senia, a Hawaiian fusion restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown, is a semifinalist for the best new restaurant award. The restaurant, a collaboration of chefs Chris Kajioka and Anthony Rush, opened in December.
Vino, at the Waterfront Plaza in Honolulu, is a semifinalist in the outstanding wine program category. The Italian tapas restaurant is a partnership between master sommelier Chuck Furuya and restaurateur D.K. Kodama and opened in 2004.
No individual Hawaiian chefs were named as semifinalists for any of the Beard Awards this year.
The semifinalists were culled from more than 24,000 nominations. Finalists will be announced on March 15, and winners will be named on May 1.