20 things you didn't know about Lynne Rossetto Kasper

You might think you know Lynne Rossetto Kasper. After all, she has been interviewing guests and taking your calls weekly on The Splendid Table for the past 20 years. But how well do you really know her?

We talked to people who have been around since the show's beginning to compile a list of things you (probably) didn't know about Lynne.

1. Lynne's grandmother put olive oil in her hair

Following Italian tradition, Lynne's grandmother used olive oil to moisturize her hair when she was young. Her grandmother would put warm olive oil on Lynne's dry hair, wrap a towel around her head overnight, then shampoo it in the morning. Lynne says she went to school smelling like a tossed salad.

2. Lynne attended speech therapy in grade school

Lynne had a bad lisp, so she attended speech therapy, which she hated. By ninth grade, the speech therapy paid off -- Lynne played leading roles in several school productions.

She also had a thick New Jersey accent that no one else in the family shared. (Lynne grew up in Paramus, New Jersey; her family blamed TV and Lynne's love of mimicking.) The speech therapy also tamed her strong accent.

Today, listeners frequently comment on her unique pronunciation (unrelated to her lisp and New Jersey accent) of words like endive, marinade and shallot.

3. She used to sneak under fences to ride horses in pastures near her house

When Lynne was young, any time she saw a horse in a pasture on the farms near her house, she would duck under the fence to ride it. Her parents forbade her from doing it, but that didn't stop her. She calls those her "Black Stallion" years.

4. Lynne wanted to be an actress, and her stage name would have been Claudia Randolph

Lynne studied acting for 2 years at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City. (She once had a class with James Earl Jones, who substituted for her regular teacher, Michael Kahn.) Had she continued acting, her stage name would have been Claudia Randolph, which she hoped would create an image of her being terribly British and sophisticated. Though she loved acting, directing, and set and costume design, Broadway was not as welcoming as she had hoped.

5. Lynne created an improv theater group that performed for children

Lynne created an improv theater group, The Brooklyn Company. The group did street theater for children all over the borough, from Bedford Stuyvesant to Brooklyn Heights.

6. Lynne's first 'real' job in New York was at CBS, where she met Lucille Ball

Lynne's first real job was as an assistant to the director of press information at CBS. There she met many actors from television, but her favorite was Lucille Ball. 

Lynne has said: "You couldn't miss [Lucille Ball] in a crowd of 1,000. It wasn't the hair, the blazing red lipstick or the eyelashes as long as Fifth Avenue. It was the woman who carried herself like she owned the world (which she nearly did at that time) and could laugh at herself at the same time. Her voice was rougher, deeper and sexier than on air.  

"She loved to gossip, she was really funny, had a wide streak of the 'tough broad' and was ready to take on anything to promote the show. She'd been through all the hoops, paid her dues 10 times over, knew the business inside out. Besides, I couldn't get over how she paid attention to me and everyone else. She listened to you as though you were the only person in the room, asked questions, got involved and told fabulous stories."

7. Lynne worked as an assistant to surrealist artist and art collector William Copley

Like the art, the work environment was surreal: a piece by Rene Magritte hung over Lynne's desk, life-size sheep sculptures on rollers stood in the living room for riding, and the apartment had a coffee table etched as a chess board with oversized chess pieces filled with red and white wine. When you took a piece, you had to empty the bottle.

8. Lynne once set herself on fire while making dinner for her soon-to-be husband

While making dinner for her soon-to-be-husband one night, Lynne whisked by the broiler at the bottom of the oven and caught the hem of her full-length negligee on fire. She turned on the sink, soaked the fabric and put out the fire. They still ate the meal.

9. Lynne catered her own wedding

Lynne and her husband, Frank, were married in their Brooklyn apartment. They didn't have a lot of money, so they hosted the wedding themselves.

At the time, Lynne had been doing some catering. She planned the menu far in advance, and even drew pictures of what she wanted the dishes to look like on the serving platters. She gave Frank and his best man a basic shopping list, while she purchased the special items. The day before the wedding, Lynne took off work so she could cook.

Forty people attended the wedding. Lynne and Frank didn't have furniture, so they set up folding chairs for the ceremony. They decorated the apartment with 26 dozen daisies. Lynne served a buffet of marinated salads with beans and vegetables; a seafood mousse molded with sour cream and gelatin; chicken tossed with fresh herbs, olive oil and garlic, then slow-roasted; and wine.

They ordered a cake from the small Italian bakery down the block. Though they had requested a white cake decorated with yellow daisies, the cake that was delivered after the ceremony was yellow trimmed with dark brown and black. It was so hideous, they didn't take a photo of it.

Lynne wrote an article on how to cater your own wedding, and recouped the cost of the entire party.

10. Lynne can’t resist peanuts, even though her husband was allergic to them

Lynne loves peanuts by the handful, on airplanes, even stale ones. Lynne’s husband had a serious peanut allergy, so she always traveled with an EpiPen.

11. Lynne ran a cooking school in Golden, Colorado

After teaching Chinese cooking classes from friends' homes, and managing and teaching at the Cordon Bleu of New York, Lynne moved to Denver. There she started teaching in her home, then opened a cooking school called Lynne Kasper's Lid and Ladle in Golden, Colorado, in 1978. Some of the school's classes included "The Gregarious Tomato," a "20-week Foundations of Cooking" series, "Day After Turkey Day Improv" and a 4-week hands-on class on charcuterie.

12. Lynne can take apart an entire cow

Lynne taught a class about butchery at her cooking school. She can also butcher a lamb and a pig. (She trained with her old-time butcher in Brooklyn.)

13. Lynne quit smoking cold turkey after a friend who died visited her in a dream

When Lynne lived in Denver, she had a friend who was an actor, director and owner of a small Italian restaurant. He was constantly on Lynne’s case to quit smoking; he told her the cigarettes were going to kill her. He died unexpectedly, and that night he appeared in one of Lynne's dreams and told her to stop smoking. Though she had been a smoker since high school, the next morning she quit cold turkey. The carton of cigarettes she had purchased the day before remained untouched on the shelf for 10 years.

14. Lynne purchased a stove, which she named Babe, with her first royalty check

With her first royalty check from her book, The Splendid Table, Lynne purchased a 17,500 BTU stove. It had six burners, and was Wolf's first commercial version for the home. She had wanted a restaurant-quality range for a long time and had earmarked the royalty check for that purpose. Tired of the boys' club mentality in commercial kitchens, she named her stove Babe.

15. Lynne knew Julia Child, who was one of the first guests on The Splendid Table

Lynne's first real job in food was running the cooking program at Brooklyn department store Abraham & Strauss. Every weekday, Lynne, called a “gourmet consultant,” gave a cooking demo. Every fall she ran the store’s Gourmet Festival, which drew guests like James Beard and Jacques Pepin. The first time Julia Child cooked in public was in Lynne’s demo kitchen (which is how Lynne and Julia first met).

Julia loved Lynne's book The Splendid Table, and was one of the radio show's first guests. When The Splendid Table first appeared, Julia invited Lynne to stay with her while Lynne was on book tour in Boston. Every night they would meet at the kitchen table for gin on ice, a snack and good gossip.

Lynne appeared on "In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs" twice. They shot all day at Julia's house, then took a break and reassembled to cook dinner together.

16. One of Lynne and Sally's recipes was used in a marriage proposal

In February 2012, Tara called in to the show to ask for a meatball recipe. She needed a special one to use with a marriage proposal to her boyfriend, whose favorite dish was spaghetti and meatballs. Her boyfriend said yes, and Lynne was invited to their wedding.

[Related: The classic theme song for The Splendid Table has been used in several weddings over the years.]

17. Staff can tell what Lynne is using in her own cooking from what she recommends to callers

Lynne frequently tests recipes in her kitchen. Staff can tell what she is using in her own cooking from what she recommends to callers. Some of her phases include: vinegar, orange rind, fish sauce, almonds and marzipan.

18. Lynne's voice was used in the opening of the 2011 movie 'Tower Heist'

Lynne was floored when one of the producers of "Tower Heist" emailed to say that director Brett Ratner was a fan of The Splendid Table. She recorded the script in Studio M at American Public Media in St. Paul. Even though Lynne’s voice is heard for only a few minutes in the movie, it took half of a day to record different takes of the script. She still receives royalty checks for the film today. (She won't be retiring on the money -- they average about $30 a year.)

19. Lynne collects dried beans -- and many other things

Lynne is a prolific collector. Her collections include: dried beans from all over the world; early glassware like wine rinsers (used in the 18th century for rinsing glasses between servings of different types of wine); santos; items with roosters; tablecloths and linens from the 1800s, ’20s, ’30s and ’40s; fish knives and forks; antique jewelry; old souvenir plates from restaurants in Italy; old china and silver; historic Italian food books in reprint; old American community cookbooks; old food prints; and food items like pasta, canned tomatoes, vinegars, soy sauces and Asian noodles.

20. Yes, she really is just like she sounds on the radio. Gracious, funny and great to hang out with.