Food Writer

Craig Claiborne, the venerated New York Times food writer, has planned a bash worthy of Malcolm Forbes to celebrate his 70th birthday Labor Day weekend. Although guests must pay their own freight to the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Claiborne will see to it that 100 of his closest will get three days' worth of free lodging, meals and entertainment. The Mumm champagne people and the hotel will pick up most of the tab. Among the lucky invited are fellow food maven Gael Greene, columnists William Safire and Russell Baker, composer Stephen Sondheim, authors Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller, actress Lauren Bacall and filmmaker Alan Pakula.

Julie Powell proved you can be completely original by following in someone else's footsteps. In August 2002, Powell was approaching 30 with fear and loathing: She'd learned she might never bear children; her dream of an acting career had deflated; and she was spending her days as a temp, commuting from Queens to a dead-end secretarial? gig. "A temp!" she rails even now, recalling how the limitations of the position pounded against her unexplored potential. She was not even a bona fide, if underappreciated, employee.

'Love does strange things to people," is all Elissa Altman can say. It made her trade Manhattan's urban chic for the "Green Acres" of Connecticut, and trout foam for backyard broccoli, and then write about her crazy adventures and in a food blog called "Poor Man's Feast" and a new memoir by the same name. In 2012, Altman won the James Beard Foundation award for best individual food blog. Her memoir is to be released by Chronicle Books on March 5, which, coincidentally, is the first of three days that she's scheduled to emcee culinary events at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Fritz Blank went from herding cows to hoarding cookbooks. The animal husbandry student-turned-chef at Deux Chemin?es restaurant - a self-described "culinary bibliophile" - boasts a library of more than 10,000 volumes. On Oct. 6, in the exhibition "A Chef & His Library," selected volumes from Blank's cookery collection will go on display at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center of the University of Pennsylvania, 3420 Walnut St. Three years in development, it will run through Jan. 3. The exhibition alone is a significant event for culinarians.

Three dishes at each of three restaurants in three hours for $39? That's Dishcrawl. An import from the West Coast, Dishcrawl invites the hungry hip to come out as singles or in couples for an evening getting to know one another and one of their neighborhoods through that powerful communications tool we call food. Philadelphia's inaugural Dishcrawl, Jan. 24 in Northern Liberties, brought out 60 foodies who descended first on Cantina Dos Segundos, 931 N. Second St., for quesadillas (chicken or cheese)

IN THE OLD days, reporters covered trials, riots, fires, elections and other breaking news by scribbling their notes and battling their way to a telephone. There, they'd connect to their paper's switchboard and holler, "Hello, sweetheart? Get me rewrite!" and spew everything they knew to a wordsmith on the other end for transformation into a news story. Newspapers still employ rewrite guys, but with computers and the Internet at every reporter's fingertips, they're a vanishing species - which is too bad. The gremlins on the rewrite desk not only excelled at interpreting reporters' mad barkings, but they often helped explain the meaning of the story to the reporter.

Take a bow, Book and Cook organizers. The five-day event concluded its ninth year on Sunday with some impressive numbers: 12,400 people attended more than 50 restaurant events, spent $443,000 on food and bought approximately $50,000 worth of cookbooks. Judy Faye, whose City Celebrations company produces The Book and The Cook for the city of Philadelphia and the Center City Proprietors Foundation, said another 12,200 people attended the two-day Book and Cook Fair. "My feeling, personally, is that this was an antidote to cabin fever," said the tireless Faye, who popped in at 40 of the events.

IT MUST BE said: In the scope of literature, food writing is a minor genre. As popular as food books have become, no one is confusing most of them with "War & Peace" or "One Hundred Years of Solitude" — or even "Fifty Shades of Grey. " There is nothing worse than the food writer who foolishly convinces himself that he is writing something akin to the Great American Novel. The smart food writer quickly realizes that she's just as likely to be praised for the recipes or the restaurant recommendation as for literary merit.

The 10th edition of the city's Book and the Cook event was formally announced yesterday by Mayor Rendell, who also said that food writer Craig Claiborne would receive the city's Toque Award. The award - which honors a broad range of culinary achievements - was presented last year to cookbook author Paula Wolfert. The first Toque Award went to Julia Child. Claiborne will join about 60 visiting food and wine personalities scheduled to participate in this year's Book and the Cook, which will take place from March 16 to 26. As in past years, the visiting celebrities will be paired with area restaurants, caterers, food markets and other locations, creating more than 70 dining events, all open to the public.

QUOTE It's hard being famous. Had I known, I would have opted for just rich and powerful. - Delta Burke TIPPER'S WARY OF A BAD RAP TAPES INTERVIEW TO CHECK QUOTES The Gore Kids Listen to Rap! Says Mom Who's Wrapped Too Tight. This revelation came yesterday from Tipper Gore in what AP writer Dana Kennedy called a "tense interview. " Clutching a tape recorder on her lap, apparently for fear of being misquoted, Miz Gore "was often on the defensive," Kennedy writes.

'Love does strange things to people," is all Elissa Altman can say. It made her trade Manhattan's urban chic for the "Green Acres" of Connecticut, and trout foam for backyard broccoli, and then write about her crazy adventures and in a food blog called "Poor Man's Feast" and a new memoir by the same name. In 2012, Altman won the James Beard Foundation award for best individual food blog. Her memoir is to be released by Chronicle Books on March 5, which, coincidentally, is the first of three days that she's scheduled to emcee culinary events at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

IT MUST BE said: In the scope of literature, food writing is a minor genre. As popular as food books have become, no one is confusing most of them with "War & Peace" or "One Hundred Years of Solitude" — or even "Fifty Shades of Grey. " There is nothing worse than the food writer who foolishly convinces himself that he is writing something akin to the Great American Novel. The smart food writer quickly realizes that she's just as likely to be praised for the recipes or the restaurant recommendation as for literary merit.

Three dishes at each of three restaurants in three hours for $39? That's Dishcrawl. An import from the West Coast, Dishcrawl invites the hungry hip to come out as singles or in couples for an evening getting to know one another and one of their neighborhoods through that powerful communications tool we call food. Philadelphia's inaugural Dishcrawl, Jan. 24 in Northern Liberties, brought out 60 foodies who descended first on Cantina Dos Segundos, 931 N. Second St., for quesadillas (chicken or cheese)

WISCASSET, Maine - "Do we have to eat a lobster roll now ?! We're eating dinner in an hour," said my wife, Elizabeth, ever the practical one. "And, by the way, aren't we on a vacation?" Indeed, we'd come to the coast of Maine for a late-summer family getaway - not the all-lobster-all-the-time eating marathon this trip was quickly shaping up to be. And yet, by some minor miracle, there was only a 20-minute line at Red's Eats , the legendary lobster-roll shack that routinely clogs Route 1 traffic at the base of the bridge leading into this postcard-perfect coastal village.

When Sara Roahen first visited New Orleans, she felt an immediate connection: "It was at e same time the most exotic place and immediately comfortable," she says. Roahen moved to the Crescent City a few years later, when her husband started medical school at Tulane. Not long afterward, she landed a job as a weekly restaurant reviewer, and for the following 4 1/2 years she devoured oyster po'boys; mastered the art of making a roux; and most important, discovered the traditions, the people, and the history that make the New Orleans community indefinably unique.

Earlier this month, Michael Pollan, the best-selling food-nature-science writer, could be spotted settling in for lunch at Vietnam Restaurant on 11th Street, which for a man in his position - on tour as the author of an "eater's manifesto" - is a bit like stepping into the batter's box. He is about to turn 53 (next week), a tall, rangy fellow, loose-limbed to the point of seeming unhinged, his head shaven, jeans well-worn, his smile broad, engaging and frequent. It is one thing to eat in your comfort zone.

Yes, they eat. Melissa Clark (size 2, 5-foot-5 1/2, "113ish") and Robin Aronson (size 6, 5-foot-7 1/4, 130 pounds) ingest plenty. Not simply their Skinny menu served recently at Patrick Feury's Nectar in Berwyn, but sushi, Pad Thai, cake, and that Simpsonian delicacy - doughnuts. "For us eating is not about guilt," write the two dear friends and veteran writers in their new book, The Skinny: How to Fit Into Your Little Black Dress Forever (Meredith, 256 pp., $23). "It's about pleasure and good health, decadence, and restraint.

SOME MEN SEEK out elusive treasures when they travel: little-known wineries, custom clothiers, boutique cigars, craft breweries. Holly Moore hunts for hot dogs. From the coasts of Maine to the streets of Los Angeles, Moore has taken his obsession with hot dogs on weekend jaunts and business trips - and chronicled every bite on the Internet. His Web site, www.hollyeats.com, may be the most straight-shooting, unpretentious food site on the Web, a running list of the best barbecue, diners, sandwiches and cheesesteaks in the country.

Julie Powell proved you can be completely original by following in someone else's footsteps. In August 2002, Powell was approaching 30 with fear and loathing: She'd learned she might never bear children; her dream of an acting career had deflated; and she was spending her days as a temp, commuting from Queens to a dead-end secretarial? gig. "A temp!" she rails even now, recalling how the limitations of the position pounded against her unexplored potential. She was not even a bona fide, if underappreciated, employee.

Food critic Alan Richman has been casting a gimlet eye on the restaurant scene for more than 15 years. He has skewered celebrity chefs, diet-poor vegans, pricey bottled water, and overpriced cheese carts. He's praised great pizza and barbecue pit men who cook with wood and not gas. Since 1989, Richman, who grew up in Upper Darby and Elkins Park and now lives outside of New York, has been turning his dining adventures into bitingly witty essays for a variety of magazines, including a monthly column for GQ. In the process he has earned an unprecedented 11 James Beard awards.