Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Crocus Hill home is on the market

Lynne Rossetto Kasper pulled a pan of crunchy apple pizza from the oven. "The crust is an experiment," said Rossetto Kasper, as she expertly trimmed the edges.

It's one of hundreds of recipes Rossetto Kasper — gourmet cook, author and host of Minnesota Public Radio's "The Splendid Table" — has tested in her St. Paul kitchen over the past three decades. And it will likely be one of the last desserts she'll bake using "Babe," her grand, six-burner Wolf stove. Rossetto Kasper and her husband, Frank, have decided to sell their stately brick residence in Crocus Hill.

The couple bought the home in 1985, when Honeywell transferred Frank from Brussels, Belgium, to the Twin Cities.

"When we lived in New York, we were brownstoners, so we wanted a walkable neighborhood with sidewalks near a place to get a cup of coffee," Rossetto Kasper said. Their St. Paul friends suggested the Crocus Hill area, with its shops and restaurants on bustling Grand Avenue.

After an exhaustive search, the Kaspers found a gracious Colonial Revival home that possessed all the right ingredients: It was on a street lined with Victorian homes. It was huge (nearly 7,000 square feet), with plenty of room for overnight guests. It had a spacious dining room for dinner parties, and a quaint European-style breakfast room for morning coffee.

The kitchen was big for a century-old house and still had its original butler's pantry, which Rossetto Kasper called "pure gold." She could imagine using it to prep for parties and to store her china and pottery collections.

The home hadn't been updated since the 1970s and sorely needed new carpet, fresh paint and other cosmetic fixes, but "it had great bones and the systems worked," Rossetto Kasper said. "We knew we could make it our own."

The Kaspers found out from the neighbors that the residence was called the Parish house after the family that lived there from the 1940s to the late 1960s. Like many older homes, it had undergone a few remodelings, including converting a front porch into a sunroom and adding what Rossetto Kasper called a "ranch-house picture window" to the living room. "Back then, people weren't that concerned about preserving architectural style," she said.

In the early 1990s, the Kaspers planned a major kitchen renovation, but "life happens and we just didn't have time," she said.

Instead they updated the space with new surfaces, colors and appliances. They painted the "hospital green" cabinets cream, the walls a pale yellow and replaced the gold-and-aqua linoleum with black-and-white checkerboard. The new crisp white Formica countertops make a plate of food "pop," she said.

"I live in this room," said Rossetto Kasper. "So it has colors that make me smile."

The biggest splurge for the kitchen was "Babe," which she bought with her first royalty check from "The Splendid Table." While shopping, she brought along a 12-inch sauté pan to measure the space between the burners. The 17,500 BTU stove, Wolf's first commercial version for the home, filled the bill. "I can have six pots going at once and roast a side of lamb in the oven," she said.

"Babe" is way too heavy to move, she said. "This stove is a treasure. I hope whoever buys the house will keep it."

Giving up "Babe" is part of the couple's plan "to downsize and simplify," she said, adding that they are buying a condo in St. Paul. "It's not going to be easy with two collectors living here for almost 30 years."

While the new owner may wish to revamp what Rossetto Kasper calls "a practical working kitchen," it served for years as her culinary sanctuary. "I would love to sing and bang pots and pans," she said. "I felt like a 5-year-old let loose in a playground."

Other features:

• The 6,800-square-foot home includes eight bedrooms — two with sitting rooms — and seven bathrooms.

• Many of the bedrooms have space-saving built-in dressers as well as other storage.

• Architectural details include leaded-glass windows and three wood-burning fireplaces with Art Moderne curved marble surrounds.

• The finished third floor houses a playroom, three bedrooms and a bathroom.

• A large, light-filled office is adjacent to a library with built-in bookcases.

• Location, location, location: The home is just a few blocks from Grand Avenue shops and restaurants, including Cafe Latté, where Rossetto Kasper edited her first book.

Linda Warner of Coldwell Banker

Burnet has the listing, 651-983-4863.

Lynn Underwood • 612-673-7619