While stalking the Green Olive Media Web site yesterday—which does beautiful design and PR for restaurants, and I wish to god there were someone doing this with the same degree of success for veg restaurants—I found out that this year's list of James Beard award nominees has been announced. Although not surprised, I was happy to see that Hugh Acheson from Five and Ten in Athens, Georgia, is nominated for Best Chef in the Southeast. Many of you who read the blog regularly probably already know that I lived in Athens for many years and that I love the delicious vegan plate that Five and Ten creates.

I was, however, surprised to see one vegetarian cookbook nominated for an award and a few more things I love on the list. Here's a quick rundown of what stood out to me:

•How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman: Nominated in the "General" section of the James Beard Foundation Books Awards.

•Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole & Natural Ingredients Into Your Cooking by Heidi Swanson: From the blogger who delivers great pictures and recipes at 101 Cookbooks, a large number of which are vegan or vegetarian. She's nominated in the "Healthy Focus" section of the James Beard Foundation Books Awards.

•Chow.com: Nominated in the "Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition" category. It is by far my favorite online food site—next to this one, of course—because of the great blogs, recipes (many vegan), and videos it offers from a youthful point of view.

•Top Chef Season 3: The Bravo show hosted by Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi is nominated in the "Television Food Show, National and Local" category. I've been a fan since season one, when I would watch every week with a few of my favorite people. Season four in Chicago just started and is featuring a few of the most famous in the food world, including Wylie Dufresne of wd-50, Rick Bayless, and Anthony Bourdain—and we're only a few weeks into the season.

You can learn more about James Beard, the great culinary figure the awards are named for, and the scandalous past of his foundation in The United States of Arugula: The Sun-Dried, Cold-Pressed, Dark-Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution by David Kamp.