Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a native of the New York area, born in Englewood, New Jersey, in February, 1943. After majoring in theater and art in college, Lynne’s food career began during the late 1960s, in New York City where she taught, wrote and consulted. Upon moving to Denver, Colorado, in 1976, she created a cooking school that became the largest in the state. In 1981 her career took new directions as she began a nearly five-year stay in Europe. There she worked with chefs, home cooks, scientists, folklorists, and historians. She researched food history and sought out the culinary artisans still producing traditional foods in the old ways.
As a food writer, Lynne’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, Cuisine and The Journal of Gastronomy. For three years (1978–1981) Lynne wrote a weekly food column, “Epicure at Large,” for Denver’s Rocky Mountain News. She is featured in Time-Life’s “Great Meals in Minutes” series as part of the Italian Menus volume. She was awarded the Maria Luigia, Duchess of Parma Prize for International Journalism.
She has lectured on northern Italian food and culture at The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and for academic and professional groups in the United States and Canada. Her five-part Smithsonian lecture on Emilia-Romagna was a “first” for the institution and met with high acclaim.
Lynne is a professional cooking teacher with over 20 years experience. She began teaching as a generalist with extensive training under leading chefs and teachers in Europe and the United States. Lynne has run cooking schools in New York, Denver, and Brussels. The James Beard Foundation named Lynne one of the twelve best American cooking teachers of 1988.
Elected to L’Accademia Italiana della Cucina (one of Italy’s leading gastronomic societies), Lynne is also a member of the American Institute of Wine and Food, and a founding and certified member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Her husband, Frank Kasper, is a native New Yorker, a lover of wine and food, and is president of an international export firm. They live in St. Paul, Minnesota.