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04/02/2001 Archived Entry: "Philadelphia's The Book and The Cook"

I’m just back from Philadelphia’s The Book and The Cook, the original and still largest event of this type. What is it? Cookbook authors from all over the country go to Philadelphia to host dinners held in restaurants where food from their books is featured. There is also a “fair” at which some of the authors do cooking demonstrations and/or sign books, of course meeting the public at the same time. These demos and signings are set up in the Philadelphia Convention Center where there are also booths representing food and cookware companies. Kitchen Aid has become a major sponsor in recent years, so there’s a kitchen appliance display, among many others.

Because the Convention Center is across the street from the Reading Terminal Market, I make a point of stopping there for a bite to eat before doing my thing at the fair, which, this year, was simply to sign books at the huge off-premises store set-up by Borders. Incidentally, I left behind autographed copies of What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing In The House To Eat and Naples At Table that should still be in stock at the Rittenhouse Square Borders on Walnut Street.

Last year at the Reading Terminal Market, I ate at the Pennsylvania Dutch foods counter – I forget the exact name, but there is only one – and the food was not particularly good. I thought the chicken pot pie had a certain gloppy appeal, but it isn’t what it can be. Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie is not what you think, unless, of course, you know what Penn Dutch pot pie is. It’s not a pie. It has no crust. It’s thickish, large, square egg noodles with strips or chunks of chicken, vegetables, and chicken gravy. In any case, I needed to try something different this year. Salumeria, an Italian food stall (the name means “preserved pork products store”), was recommended by a new friend, Gerald Kolpan, who is the Fox TV feature reporter in Philly. He said to have the Italian hoagie, hoagie being Philly-speak for what we call a hero in New York, a grinder in Connecticut, and a submarine in many other places. He said to order it with house dressing, marinated artichokes, and roasted peppers. I skipped the peppers – they looked too processed to me and the sandwich was already vast without them -- but otherwise I took Gerald’s advice. What a sandwich! Even the small one is big and I really liked that house dressing, which is an oil-vinegar base with what I guessed has a goodly mustard quotient.

Philadelphia’s favorite local ice cream, Bassett’s, has its original 1800-something stand in the Reading Terminal Market, so no matter what you eat make sure to stop by for a cone or a cup. It’s wonderfully creamy ice cream. I loved my vanilla fudge, not being able to make up my mind between vanilla and chocolate, but Gerald dotes on the various chocolate flavors.

Kolpan’s other great eating advice was the cheese and prune Danish from Metropolitan Bakery, which has six locations: 262 So. 19th St., 1114 Pine St., Reading Terminal Market, 8607 Germantown Ave., 126 Market St., and in Albrecht’s Market, Narbeth. Gerald says the cheese and prune Danish “is a reason to continue living.” I agree that it deserves all the hyperbole it can get, but from what I hear, the cooking of his wife, Joan Wiener (not to mention Joan herself), is more than enough reason to love life.

The main Book and the Cook event for me was not the fair, or the noshing, but hosting a dinner at Toto, a beautiful Italian restaurant at 1405 Locust St., directly across the street of The Academy of Music. Toto is a nickname for Antonio, and owner Toto Schiavone is an incredibly gracious Calabrian gentleman. I ate dinner at his restaurant privately on Saturday, before our Sunday Book and The Cook event, and I was so impressed with the way he treated his customers. There were quite a few older people eating dinner at the restaurant before a concert at The Academy of Music and many of them needed extra attention. All I can say is that when I am old and frail I hope I can go to a restaurant where the owner-host is that sensitive to my needs and my dignity.

And the food is delicious, too. Toto has an Italian woman making the ethereal pastas, and his chef, Chuck Taylor, young and American as he is, does them justice with his preparations. I particularly loved and very highly recommend the malfatti, which means oddly cut pasta, dressed with duck ragu and a slice of sauteed foie gras. Ravioli stuffed with ricotta and Swiss chard were heavenly pillows. For dessert, there’s chocolate ganache-filled phyllo pastry that is not Italian, even though it is called “pastafrolla,” which means “short pastry.” It should not be missed.

The Sunday dinner at Toto was a big success, I thought. We had about 140 people attending, and Toto and Chuck, along with chef Donna Vehay from Toto’s other restaurant, Moonstruck, made sure the recipes from my book, Naples At Table, were prepared perfectly. We started with salt cod fritters passed around at the reception, then a more formal antipasto of alici – marinated fresh anchovies – garnished with roasted peppers, corn kernels, and some shredded arugula, plus, for each table, slices of Toto’s homemade sopressata. The first course was minestra di stagione, a soup of spring vegetables, including fava beans, peas, artichokes, spring onions, and new potatoes. For a second or main course we had beef braciole al ragu, beef rolls braised in tomato sauce, served as a piatto unico, a single plate, with rigatoni. For dessert, there was the famous cake of Naples, pastiera, ricotta and whole wheat berry pie flavored with candied orange peel and orange flower water. It was all like home-cooking, which is what it is, except it was in a restaurant. Bravo Toto!