Leave Me Alone with the Recipes: The Life Art and Cookbook of Cipe Pineles

About this book

Saveur Best New Cookbooks of the Year" Finalist for the Gourmand Award for Cookbook Design The newly discovered illustrated recipes of wildly influential yet unsung designer Cipe Pineles introducing her delectable work in food and art to a new generation. Not long ago Sarah Rich and Wendy MacNaughton discovered a painted manuscript at an antiquarian book fair that drew them in like magnets: it displayed a vibrant painting of hot pink beets and a hand-lettered recipe for borscht written in script so full of life it was hard to believe it was more than sixty-five years old. It was the work of one of the most influential graphic designers of the twentieth century--Cipe (pronounced C. P.) Pineles the first female art director at Cond Nast whose impact lives on in the work of Maira Kalman Julia Rothman and many others. Completed in 1945 it was a keepsake of her connection to her childhoods Eastern European food--she called it Leave Me Alone with the Recipes. For Wendy and Sarah it was a talisman of a woman they had not known was their idol: a strong independent spirit whose rich archive--of drawings recipes diaries and letters to family and friends--led them into a dazzling history of mid-century design art food New York City society and culture. They teamed up with Maria Popova of Brain Pickings and Debbie Millman of Design Matters along with contributors Mimi Sheraton Steven Heller Paula Scher and Maira Kalman to present Cipe Pineless life and work as it should be presented--in glorious color. With Pineless illustrated cookbook and a section of updated recipes as its centerpiece this gorgeous volume will delight foodies and design devotees alike.