FLAVOR ENHANCER: Paradiso's Lynn Rinaldi, here preparing her gnocchi with fresh sauce, will dish out her specialties at the Flavors of the Avenue event. : Michael T. Regan

It's most likely because Green's March 26 dinner is the festival's first-ever progressive meal, with successive courses being served at four different Ambler restaurants, before a nightcap of the festival's first-ever movie screening, Chocolat at the Ambler Theater. Local patrons of the 22-year-old food fest seem to be hungry for new and different events. And this year, festival executive producer Judy Faye and her Book and the Cook team appear to be giving them all they can eat.

The festival's main dishes are still the dinners pairing cookbook authors with local restaurants (most costing $25 to $75) and the March 24 to 26 Fort Washington Expo Center showcase featuring exhibit booths and cooking demonstrations by some of these same food celebrities ($20). But about half of the authors are Book and the Cook first-timers, including TV stars Daisy Martinez and Aaron Sanchez, and food "docs" Alan Hirsch and Robert Wolke. Most notable among the totally new events that aren't sold out is the Flavors of the Avenue festival, a March 18 tasting featuring restaurants and food shops on South Philly's newly revitalized East Passyunk Avenue restaurant row. That Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., almost a dozen Avenue eateries, including Anastasi's Seafood, Tre Scalini, Cellini's specialty foods and the soon-to-open Le Virtu, will be dishing out appetizer-sized samples of regular menu items in a parking lot between Tasker and Morris streets. Twenty dollars is your ticket to the food, wine and a spot under the big heated tent to chow down, listen to live music from a Southern Italian folk band and watch chefs from RoseLena's, Mamma Maria's and Paradiso make some of the dishes you're eating. Terry Masino of RoseLena's says she'll be sharing the secret behind her signature antica dulce torte (a dessert pasta with cinnamon, honey and raisins). Try to get there early, especially if the weather's good, because it's all you can eat, tickets are only being sold on-site and organizers will stop selling tickets once they start running out of food.

Incidentally, the same Italian five-piece will be performing at the first Book and the Cook dinner to feature music: the Night in Abruzzo dinner on March 26, which pairs the Abruzzo-based DisCanto band, author Giuliano Hazan and Davio's chef David Boyle to create a multisensory Abruzzo experience.

This year's festival will also feature some unusual new dinner settings, including two supermarkets. Joan Nathan's March 17 dinner at the Whole Foods on Callowhill and Mary Ann Esposito's at Wegmans in Downingtown on March 25 might not be as stuffy as the dinners scheduled at Le Bec-Fin and Lacroix, but should still be memorable, insists Wegmans spokesman Bob Powell. Wegmans will also be hosting free cooking demonstrations by Book and the Cook authors from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 18 and 19 (Andy Husbands, the award-winning chef/owner of three red-hot Boston restaurants and author of The Fearless Chef, among them).

Odder still is the prospect of a Book and the Cook dinner at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (on March 24). The occasion is a talk by Robert L. Wolke, author of What Einstein Told His Cook, volumes 1 and 2, and an expert on the chemistry of food and cooking. Wolke's local chef partner, Mitch Prensky of Global Dish Caterers, promises a $50 meal featuring food "products" filled with chemical flavors, colors and preservatives — not! He actually says he'll be making delicious dishes that will demonstrate some of the scientific processes Wolke will discuss, including a Greek salad with emulsified feta cheese and red onion gelee.

Food chemistry of a different kind will be the focus of the Book and the Cook dinner at Liberties Restaurant & Bar on March 22. The author is neurologist Alan Hirsch, whose theories about food choices and compatibility have gotten him on Oprah, Dateline and 20/20. Are you a pain in the ass? Then try dating someone who likes sour foods. Sour food lovers will endure things that other people might find unpleasant — to give you just a small "taste" of the wisdom Hirsch will impart at his festival dinner.

These are only a few of more than 65 Book and the Cook events being held between March 17 and 26. To find out more about these and other events, log on to www.thebookandthecook.com or call 888-742-1336.