Birmingham’s got two chances to bring home a James Beard Foundation award this year. Frank Stitt (Highlands Bar and Grill) and Chris Hastings (Hot and Hot Fish Club) are both up for “the Oscars of the food world” as the nominees for the 2008 edition of the awards were recently announced.

There are a lot of honors up for grabs, so you may want to visit the official list and scroll down to see who our guys are up against in their respective categories (Stitt – outstanding chef; Hastings – best chef – South).

We’ll find out if they’re winners with everybody else on June 8 when the awards are handed out in Lincoln Center‘s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. You can always go on up and say you were there when…