Four Charleston chefs and two Charleston restaurants are semifinalists for the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards, and the final nominees will be announced at the Lowndes Grove Plantation in Charleston on March 18.

Chef Sean Brock of Husk and McCrady’s is one of 20 semifinalists for Outstanding Chef, one of the foundation’s top national awards.

Chef Jeremiah Bacon of The Macintosh, Chef Craig Deihl of Cypress and Chef Joshua Keeler of Two Boroughs Larder are semifinalists for Best Chef Southeast.

The Ordinary, the new restaurant Chef Mike Lata and business partner Adam Nemirow opened in December, is a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant. Lata and Nemirow also own FIG in Charleston.

The Charleston Grill at Charleston Place Hotel is a semifinalist in the Outstanding Wine Program category.

The prestigious James Beards Awards are often called the Oscars of the culinary world.

The final nominees for all award categories will be announced during a press brunch Monday, March 18, at Lowndes Grove Plantation. The winners will be named May 6 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

Charleston chefs have been named semifinalists and finalists regularly in the awards competition, but the last time a South Carolina chef brought home a top award was in 2010, when Brock was named Best Chef Southeast. Lata won that award in 2009, and Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill won it in 2008.

This is the second year that Brock has been picked as a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef. Husk was a semifinalist for best new restaurant in the 2011 competition.

Deihl, who has been chef of Cypress since it opened in 2001, has been a finalist for Best Chef Southeast for the past two year. Bacon was a semifinalist in the category last year.