THE SPLENDID TABLE TO CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A LIVE SHOW AT THE FITZGERALD THEATER ON OCTOBER 22

Sep 17, 2015

Well before the cult of the celebrity chef, cooking as a competitive sport and the Food Network's 24/7 offerings, public radio's The Splendid Table has been inspiring foodies across the globe and building a loyal fan base of people who love to eat. Since the show's debut in 1995, the show has explored not only how to cook, but also how to eat. Nearly 1,000 episodes and two decades later, The Splendid Table is still going strong with nearly 1 million weekly listeners online and on air nationwide.

The show will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a live show at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m. Lynne Rossetto Kasper will appear live on stage and in conversation with some of the culinary world's brightest stars: New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark; Enrique Olvera, a Food & Wine Top 10 Chef Superstar; and celebrated Argentine chef and grillmaster Francis Mallmann. Twin Cities musician Dessa will perform a few songs and also join the conversation. The celebration will continue after the show with cocktails and book signings.

General admission tickets are $20/$28/$35 plus fees. VIP Ovation Box Seats are available for $55 plus fees. Tickets may be purchased by phone at 651-290-1200, at fitzgeraldtheater.org or in person at the Fitzgerald Theater box office, located at 10 E. Exchange Street in downtown St. Paul. Box office hours are Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 5 p.m.

Listeners are encouraged to enter The Splendid Table 20th Anniversary Party giveaway, which includes a trip for two to St. Paul--recently lauded as the most romantic city in North America by USA TODAY--including airfare, hotel accommodations at the St. Paul Hotel and two VIP tickets to the show. Winners will also have the opportunity to meet Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Visit splendidtable.org to enter. Deadline to enter is September 27, at 11:59 p.m. CT.

About Lynne and her guests:

Lynne Rossetto Kasper has won numerous awards as host of The Splendid Table, including two James Beard Foundation Awards (1998, 2008) for Best National Radio Show on Food, five Clarion Awards (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014) from Women in Communication, and a Gracie Allen Award in 2000 for Best Syndicated Talk Show. Lynne is a respected authority on food, having published multiple bestselling books: The Splendid Table; The Italian Country Table; a series of quarterly e-books, Eating In with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, as well as the best-selling The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper, How To Eat Weekends and A Summertime Grilling Guide, which were co-authored with founding producer Sally Swift. The Splendid Table can be heard on more than 400 public radio stations nationwide.

Francis Mallmann is the reigning star of food television in the Spanish-speaking world and the most famous and popular chef in South America. He is the author of Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way (2009) and Mallmann on Fire (2014), which introduced readers to the secrets and flavors of traditional live-fire cooking. He has four restaurants: one in Mendoza, Argentina's wine country; another in the La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires; the third in the picturesque village of Garzón, Uruguay, and a new restaurant at Faena Hotel in Miami, FL. USA Today and The Times (U.K.) have named his restaurants among the top 10 places to eat in the world.

Enrique Olvera graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1999. In 2000, at the age of 24, he opened Pujol in Mexico City. Enrique is constantly exploring Mexico's ingredients and culinary history, and is inspired by his early memories of food. Food & Wine named him one of the "10 Next Chef Superstars" and Star Chefs' International Congress named him in the "Top 10 International Figures in World Gastronomy." Enrique also owns three outposts of Eno, a casual eatery in Mexico City; Maiz de Mar in Playa de Carmen; and Cosme in New York. He is the founder and force behind Mesamerica, the annual international food symposium. He also publishes Boomerang, a Spanish-language culinary magazine. His first cookbook, Mexico from the Inside Out (Phaidon) comes out in fall of 2015. Enrique lives in Mexico City and New York.

Melissa Clark is a food writer and author. She is a food columnist for The New York Times, and has written for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Every Day with Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart. She is the author of Cook This Now, In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite and 32 other cookbooks.

Dessa is an inveterate wordsmith--having proved her mettle in the fields of creative non-fiction, spoken-word and hip-hop--and she jettisons all genre expectations with her new album, Parts of Speech. As a core member veteran of Doomtree, she's been described as part Mos Def and part Dorothy Parker for the wit and flow of her previous solo albums A Badly Broken Code and Castor, The Twin. This year, she proves she has truly coalesced as an artist, transcending the restrictions of genre to reveal an astonishing multi-platform voice.

Follow along with the live event on Twitter with #SplendidTable20.