FOOD .

By (No) Bread Alone

A carb-free Book and the Cook?


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Published: Oct 16, 2007

For anyone with a sizable stomach and a stuffed-silly wallet, Philly's venerable The Book and the Cook festival is worth checking out. But for people (like me) who try keep the carb consumption to a minimum, TBaTC — which pairs local restaurants with noted culinary writers to feed and educate hungry diners — can be an exercise in foodicide. That's why it's cool that Old City's decade-old Fork is hosting two carb-free personalities next week — cheese connoisseur Max McCalman and New York-based Japanese cuisine expert Hiroko Shimbo.

"I met Max and Hiroko around the same time in 2002," says Fork proprietor Ellen Yin, who'll be hosting her own TBaTC event at Bryn Mawr's Yangming on Oct. 23 in support of her new book Forklore (Temple University Press). "We're doing Max's cheese in our efforts to promote artisanal food production. And Hiroko's dinner goes with Fork's search for food the world over to incorporate into our new American bistro-style cuisine."

As America's first restaurant-based maître fromager (essentially, a cheese sommelier), McCalman, author of Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best (Clarkson Potter), has created influential cheese programs at restaurants like Manhattan's Picholine. McCalman's Fork meal, scheduled for Oct. 24, will offer a light supper of charcuterie, followed by three wine-and-cheese pairings. There's also a smaller cheese course with unusual selections; Yin's hoping McCalman brings nutty, semi-hard choices like the French Ossau Iraty or the Spanish Ibores, a goat's-milk cheese rubbed with paprika.

Shimbo's Oct. 25 event highlights the stately chef, who made 2006's The Sushi Experience (Knopf) part of my daily regiment. For 18 years, she's maintained Hiroko's Kitchen — a culinary service demystifying Japanese cooking for chefs and eaters alike. Shimbo's teppanyaki-style cuisine is de rigeur for keeping lean and mean, and she and Fork chef Thien Ngo will be preparing traditional Japanese dishes with an emphasis on vegetables. "I don't think it's a cuisine that's well-understood in the States, so it will be a great learning experience," says Yin of the items featured on Shimbo's four-course dinner menu, which will include 'yaki rabbit with pickled green mango, and grilled shiitake and spinach with ponzu sauce.

And when I thank Yin for the carb-freeness of it all, she just laughs. "I love starch," she admits.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Max McCalman, Wed., Oct. 24, rolling reservations from 5:30-8:30 p.m., $55; Hiroko Shimbo, Thu., Oct. 25, rolling reservations from 5:30-8:30 p.m., $65; Fork, 306 Market St., 215-625-9425, www.forkrestaurant.com, www.thebookandthecook.com.