You’ve heard her mellifluous voice over the airwaves as the delightful and engaging host of American Public Media’s The Splendid Table, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Whether she is interviewing culinary experts from around the globe or coaching a listener on how to put unique ingredients together and create a fabulous meal, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, three-time James Beard Award winner and author of several bestselling books including The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food and The Italian Country Table is also someone many of her fans would love to join for a meal. Even better, they’d probably love to travel with her as she samples unique specialties from bistros in Spain or cafés in Rome.
In lieu of an exotic trip, but over a delicious latté, Rossetto Kasper, who lives in Saint Paul, sat down and shared some of her most memorable meals in places both remarkable and unremarkable—from pulpo (otherwise known as octopus) in northern Spain to one of the best steaks she ever ate in New York City to one of her all-time favorites, chicken-fried steak in Wyoming. Or maybe it was South Dakota—she’s not sure; there was a lot of chicken-fried steak sampling during a late 1960s cross-country road trip with her husband, Frank. More on that later.
Pulpo Patrol
Several years ago, Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, the managing producer of The Splendid Table and the person Rossetto Kasper calls “my partner in crime,” were invited to a wine tasting excursion in Galicia, which is in northern Spain, by the Wines of Spain board. “We had never been the food people on a trip where the majority of the group were wine people,” says Rossetto Kasper, who adds that on similar trips she had been on, the wine people tended to be in the minority. “[On the food trips] I’m always the one who says ‘I know it’s 11 o’clock at night, but there is a restaurant on the top of that hill. … I know we’ve already eaten, but we’ll never get back here. Well, fate got back at me on this trip.”
According to Rossetto Kasper, professional wine critics taste “a minimum” of 80 wines per day when on tours such as this one. “They have such trained palates—they can identify particular flavors or blends in a wine, and it’s amazing,” she says. In addition to spending “a lot of time on a little bus” while traveling around the region for a trip that she calls “fascinating, but at times totally exhausting,” Rossetto Kasper says the travel group indulged in some variety of pulpo or octopus every day.
“This kind of a trip is like a pajama party because everyone really bonds,” she says. “So at the airport as we were getting ready to leave, one of the wine experts said she was afraid she was going to go into ‘pulpo withdrawal,’ ” Rossetto Kasper says with a laugh. “We were emailing each other about pulpo for a few days afterwards.”
You Never Forget Your First Good Steak
During the 1960s, Rossetto Kasper was beginning her food career in New York City (she’s a New Jersey native) and one of her colleagues was dating a man who would occasionally treat them to lunch at a famous steakhouse known as Gallagher’s.
“They were famous for their aging process,” she says. “And eating their steaks was like drinking a fine burgundy or Bordeaux—they are that lush.” Rossetto Kasper, who trained with a butcher in Brooklyn, is extremely well-versed in the varieties and textures of various cuts of meat – during our interview, she pointed out where different cuts are located using her own body as a model. “In those days, there were a lot of butcher shops where they aged meat not for three days, but for three weeks,” Rossetto Kasper says. “My mouth always waters at the thought of a good steak.”
Or Your First Good Chicken Fried Steak
Rossetto Kasper has many fond memories of her first road trip across the United States. Her husband Frank worked as a sales manager for a small IT start-up company in Long Island and was charged with traveling across the country to review and train sales reps. “The company bought a huge third-hand station wagon and handed him the keys,” Rossetto Kasper says. “It was January and we traveled for five weeks. It was my first time seeing the country, and some of it was so breathtaking.”
During the trip, Rossetto Kasper made it her personal mission to find what she calls, laughing, “the food of the heartland, the food of the people” which at the time she deemed to be chicken fried steak, based on its frequent mention on the popular late ’70s sitcom Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and its status as the opposite of “the French or gourmand” foods of the day—and she’s still laughing as she describes her lofty goal.
The couple sampled chicken fried steak in every VFW hall and “hole in the wall” that they could find along the way. Rossetto Kasper’s initial determination? “Quite frankly, most of it was very, very bad. The heartburn raged until we hit the mother lode.”
“There was one night, weeks into the trip, where we went to this little place,” she continues. “I can’t remember if it was in Wyoming or one of the Dakotas. Frank said, ‘If you order chicken fried steak again …,” Rossetto Kasper says, before pausing. “It was fabulous!”
For many years, Rossetto Kasper says Frank teased her “unmercifully” about her quest. When asked how she feels about chicken fried steak today, she says unequivocally: “I really love it, but I don’t make it because I’d eat the whole darned thing.”
Lynne's Travel Tidbits
Her advice for finding the best place to eat on vacation:
While researching her first book, The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food, published in 1992, Lynne Rossetto Kasper traveled to northern Italy four to five times a year for five to six weeks at a time. It was during these extended visits that she devised a plan for finding the best place in the area to eat:
“What I used to do just before lunchtime, 11 or 12, I’d go into what seemed to be the busiest little local shop. Maybe the bakery, or the vegetable store or a little general market—I’d pick up something to buy and then ask if anyone spoke English. I’d tell them, ‘I’m looking for someplace to eat where you would eat. Somewhere where I can really taste the things that are typical here.’ People are so delighted, so complimented to be asked.”
“One of my best informants in Emilia-Romagna was the police chief. He was a gourmand and he led me to so many places. He knew everyone and he was a lovely man—just delightful. He led me to so many people who taught me so much.”
Which food destinations are still on The Splendid Table host’s bucket list?
First and foremost, it’s Asia: China, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Japan and Vietnam are “all very high on my list.”
Other favorite spots: She’d love to return to Hawaii, a place she finds fascinating and has visited several times. She’s a big fan of the food in North and South Carolina, and Seattle, where she loves the “gooey duck” (formally known as the Pacific geoduck, a type of saltwater clam). As for Portland, Oregon, she says, “I could go back there again and again and again.” Another memorable food destination: Maine, where she’s eaten fresh lobster while looking out over the harbor at the little boat that just brought in the shellfish.
Bottom line: “There is no place I’ve been where I haven’t had an incredible experience with food,” Rossetto Kasper says.
Five-Nut Caramel Tart
Here is a dessert we’ve made for the holidays since the ’80s … and it is still a top winner. For the pastry-shy, this tart is salvation. It looks like jewels set in amber, with its candy bar mosaic of five kinds of nuts embedded in buttery caramel and slicked over a tender crust, which is where salvation comes in. There is no rolling pin in sight. You pat the crust into the tart tin with your fingers. —Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Serves 8 to 10 // 25 minutes prep time; 50 minutes oven time
Pastry
1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (organic preferred), dipped and leveled
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for buttering pan
1-1/2 large egg yolks blended with 1-1/2 Tbsp. ice water
Filling
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 cup toasted, salted cashews (about 4 ounces)
2/3 cup toasted, salted macadamia nuts (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup whole, blanched almonds (about 2 1/4 ounces)
1/3 cup salted, shelled pistachios (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup pine nuts (about 1 ounce)
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1. Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk mixture and pulse until ragged lumps of dough begin to form. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
2. Butter an 11-inch-diameter false-bottom tart pan. Let the dough soften slightly, then pat the crust into the pan until it is to a relatively even thickness of 1/8 inch. Trim the edges even with the pan’s rim. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Weight the shell with foil filled with dry beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and beans. Bake 10 minutes longer, or until the tart shell is golden brown. Cool completely on a rack.
4. Make the filling: Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Place the tart shell on a large baking sheet. In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, honey, and granulated sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugars dissolve. Increase the heat and whisk until mixture comes to a boil.
5. Continue boiling until large bubbles form, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cashews, macadamia nuts, almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, and cream. Immediately pour the filling into the tart shell. Bake about 20 minutes, or until the filling bubbles (the filling might overflow slightly onto baking sheet).
6. Cool the tart in pan on a rack until the filling just begins to set. Gently remove the pan bottom and cool the tart completely, 4 to 5 hours. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Cut into wedges and serve.
