Warhol in the Kitchen

Andy Warhol's cookbook

Article

No. 1 • December 2024

Before Andy Warhol became Andy Warhol the artist, he worked as a commercial illustrator. And he produced a cookbook, with the help of his mother and (even then) a team of assistants. It was full of absurd, impossible recipes.

text: Rianne van Dijck

Andy Warhol was a commercial illustrator before he reinvented himself as Andy Warhol. In 1959, he and his friend Suzie Frankfurt, an interior designer, published the cookbook Wild Raspberries, with satirical recipes such as a Salade de Alf Landon (‘Very popular as a first course at political dinners in the 30s’) or Omelet Greta Garbo (‘Always to be eaten alone in a candlelit room’).

Warhol drew the illustrations while a team of assistants coloured them in. Frankfurt wrote the recipes and Andy’s mother, Mrs Júlia Warhola, produced the calligraphy. There were a few spelling mistakes in the text by Mrs. Warhola, which they decided to leave in (and so have we).

{{Piglet}}: neem contact op met restaurant Trader Vic's en bestel een speenvarken van 20 kilo, goed voor 15 personen. Laat Hanle met de Carey Cadillac de big om precies 18:45 uur ophalen bij de zijingang. Rijd onmiddellijk naar huis, rijg het beest aan het spit en laat het daar 50 minuten draaien. Verwijder en garneer met verse wilde appeltjes.

Fig 1. Piglet: Contact Trader Vic's and order a 40 pound suckling pig to serve 15. Have Hanley take the Carey Cadillac to the side entrance and receive the pig at exactly 6.45, Rush home immediately and place on the open spit for 50 minutes. Remove and garnish with fresh apples

This was an early example of the working method that Warhol would later develop to perfection at The Factory in New York. ‘Like a great chef, he would create the art, and then direct an assembly line of assistants to put it together,’ wrote Suzie’s son Jaime Frankfurt in the foreword to the reprint of the book in 1997.

The idea was that Wild Raspberries would be a kind of mock version of the complicated French gourmet cookbooks that were so popular in the 1950s. The end result was an entertaining nonsense book and one of the most amusing cookery books ever thanks to the preposterous recipes and hilarious drawings.

Fig 2. Garçons à la mousseline: For intimate supper parties on the terrace consider cardoons. Select five choice hearts and trim them into thin octagonal shapes. Place each in separate puff paste patties filled with poached marrow. Bake in a hot oven and serve with mousseline sauce.

No one was interested in Wild Raspberries in 1959. After Warhol and Frankfurt had finished the book, they found some sheets of wonderfully shiny paper for the cover and got rabbis to bind the copies by hand. They lugged shopping bags full of the cookbooks around New York, convinced that bookshops would be overwhelming them with orders.

To their huge disappointment, no one bought any. Eventually they gave the books away as Christmas presents to their friends.

{{Chocoladeballetjes à la Chambord}}: versier een ronde zilveren schotel van 25 centimeter met marasquinkersen, verse munt en hazelnootamandelen. Bel dan de Royal Pastry Shop en laat hen een pond chocoladeballetjes met een diameter van een centimeter bezorgen. Serveer uitsluitend met gemberbier zonder calorieën. Voor heel dunne mensen.

Fig 3. Chocolate balls à la Chambord: decorate a 25-centimetre round silver platter with maraschino cherries, fresh mint and hazelnut almonds. Then call the Royal Pastry Shop and have them deliver a pound of one-inch-diameter chocolate balls. Serve exclusively with calorie-free ginger ale. For very thin people.