You might know Lynne Rossetto Kasper by her honeyed voice, discussing roadside diners, fine wines and kitchen tactics every Sunday afternoon on the radio.
Or you might know her books, “The Splendid Table” and “The Italian Country Table.”
And if you’ve lived in Denver long enough, you might even remember the cooking school she ran in the late ’70s from the Lid and Ladle store in Golden.
The public radio host and cookbook author, above right, is back in town today and Thursday to talk about her new book, “How to Eat Supper,” she wrote with Sally Swift, above left, producer of her radio show.
Since Greeley-based KUNC 91.5-FM boosted its signal in July, metro-area listeners can hear its programs, including “Splendid Table,” as far south as Castle Rock and east to Parker. Kasper will speak tonight at 5:30 at the Boulder Farmers Market and 6 p.m. Thursday at Room & Board in Cherry Creek North.
Before she arrived, we turned the microphone around and asked the questions. (Because Kasper’s on a book tour, we interviewed her and Swift separately, but their answers appear together here.)
Do you worry that people aren’t cooking anymore?
Kasper: This business that everybody has to cook is balderdash. Nowhere is it written that everybody should cook. Cooking is happening now in a very different way than it did 20 years ago. People are dipping into food each in their own way, whether it’s philosophy or politics that leads them.
So why write another cookbook?
Kasper: It took 10 years for “Splendid,” and it took seven for “The Italian Country Table.” Because I partnered with Sally on this one, it took only three.
Swift: This was a little quickie for Lynne.
Why “Supper”?
Kasper: Supper can be anything that you make it, like Sally’s refried beans with cinnamon and clove and a green salad. Supper can be this fabulous chicken adobo, or supper can be a piece of bread and you put it on a napkin and rub some tomato on it.
Swift: We’ve been doing this wildly successful e-newsletter about weeknight cooking, and the book was going to be based on that. But neither one of us wanted to do just a recipe book.
Kasper: That thing (“Weeknight Kitchen”) took off like a bat out of you-know-where. Judy Graham, who handles our website and e-mails, said, “I think people want recipes,” and I said, “Well let’s try it.” It was like a stampede — everybody’s looking for new ideas.
How did you get started in the food business?
Kasper: I started in the late ’60s teaching Chinese cooking in New York. I was giving my focus to Asia and I realized I was someone very much of the West. I decided I should learn classical French theory and technique, so I worked through Escoffier’s “Guide Culinaire.” I began as a generalist — if you understand how food works, you can do anything. I went to culinary school in New York and worked in France. We moved to Denver in 1976, and I taught classes from our house, and around 1978 I was approached by the Lid and Ladle out on Youngfield to start a cooking school. We moved to Brussels in 1981 and back to St. Paul in 1985.
Swift: I’m a producer, not a culinary person, but I waited tables for years. I loved being around food.
The “Splendid Table” book came out in 1992, and the show started in 1993. The Food Network had courted you, but had you thought about doing a radio show?
Kasper: I hadn’t. I said I don’t want to do a cooking show. I want to do a show about the stories behind the recipes. They said nobody’s gonna fund that.
How did you two hook up?
Swift: I read “Splendid Table” and fell madly in love with it, so I called her. She had just won two awards. She had TV people interested — she was a little snotty. She had a healthy skepticism of me.
Kasper: When we met to talk about the idea of a show, it was like she was saying my words back to me. We wanted to talk about anthropology and humor, satire, sex and politics. There were local restaurant shows, there were recipe shows, but there was nobody covering food like we wanted to. That’s where the public radio link is really important. Minnesota Public Radio funded the show for two or three years, and that gave us time to find our sea legs. (It went national in 1995.)
Where is the food conversation headed?
Kasper: I think it’s going to become more and more complex. “Local,” “sustainable” and “organic” are not going to go away. This is tough stuff, but I think we are becoming freer and freer in how we approach food and that’s what we wanted to do with the book.
Swift: Americans really are embracing a food culture. I don’t think we’ve been old enough frankly. To be socially adept these days you have to know a little about food. Food is celebratory — there’s nothing more wonderful than a great meal with friends.
After 15 years on the air, is there anyone you’d like to interview but haven’t?
Kasper: There is a scientist at Redding University in England researching the taste of tomatoes. I want to have Harold McGee on more often (author of “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen”). We want to travel more. There’s a whole world of people in Australia and New Zealand I want to talk to. I want to see a master miso maker at work. I want to go into the backcountry of Thailand, to Peru to see the potato project.
How do you stay inspired?
Kasper: You need your guests, you need different segments. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface — the subject is never-ending. All this new kitchen science has me fascinated, and all these new food cultures are opening up. We have a Somalian culture here in the Twin Cities now.
Swift: The older I get the more I prefer to be home cooking. There are so many great books right now — I take home books and spend a year cooking my way through them.
Has the mission of the show changed at all?
Kasper: It’s very much what it is now: to look at food and how it plays in our lives from every possible direction. So much has changed in the 13 years we’ve had the show. We’re more deeply engaged with what we eat, where it comes from.
In “Supper,” you thank the “Denver gang.” Do you ever get back here?
Kasper: We have dear friends in Denver. All of us came together directly, or indirectly, through the cooking school. Denver really is, in our minds, like a second home to us.
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
