A lifetime of cookware, culinary tools and cookbooks from the kitchen of one of Minnesota’s most famous home cooks, radio legend and award-winning cookbook author Lynne Rossetto Kasper, will go on sale this week.
On March 21, a catalog of her French copper pans, Le Creuset pots, sterling serving pieces and more will be available to the highest bidder via St. Paul’s Revere Auctions. One-of-a-kind treasures in the auction are cookbooks with handwritten notes and Post-its as well as her personal correspondence with Julia Child.
Rossetto Kasper is the founder and original host of American Public Media’s "The Splendid Table" radio show, which connects with chefs and home cooks. She retired from the show in 2017, when current host Francis Lam took over. She’s also a longtime St. Paul resident, where she moved with her husband in 1985.
She rose to national prominence with the 1992 debut of her canonical cookbook, “The Splendid Table: Recipes From Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food.” Four years later, she and Sally Swift debuted their radio show by the same name. It rose in popularity for its intimate interviews with chefs and makers, and each show would close with readers' questions, where Rossetto Kasper would enthuse over ingredient opportunities and solve home cook conundrums with the gentle guidance of a great teacher. But it was always her love of getting into the kitchen and sharing great conversations over food that drove the show’s success.
She would go on to write more cookbooks and collect many of the industry’s top accolades, including two James Beard Awards and five Clarion Awards, which honors women in communications.
The reason given for clearing out the treasures is the simple art of downsizing. The Lynne Rossetto Kasper: The Splendid Collection will be available online on March 21; the auction will go live at 10 a.m. on April 16. Find more information at live.revereauctions.com.
