In 1959, a few years after Ingmar Bergman’s drama film Wild Strawberries was released, Andy Warhol partnered with his friend, interior designer Suzie Frankfurt, to produce a limited-edition cookbook for New York's beau monde, which they titled Wild Raspberries.
The rare, self-published cookbook was designed to parody the highbrow culture of 1950s haute cuisine—a time when it was thought that every new bride’s most important role was to be the perfect hostess. At that time, Warhol was working as an up-and-coming commercial illustrator. Frankfurt discovered Warhol after seeing his illustrations displayed at Serendipity, an ice cream parlor that doubled as an exhibition space for emerging artists, and the two became fast friends.
What makes Wild Raspberries so special is its unconventional production process: Warhol illustrated, Frankfurt wrote, Warhol’s mother Julia did the calligraphy, and four schoolboys who lived upstairs colored the pages by hand. In this way, the project was the earliest model of the collaborative method Warhol would later perfect at the Factory. Only 34 copies were completed—20 sold, while the rest were gifted to friends.
For decades, Wild Raspberries was largely forgotten, until Frankfurt’s son rediscovered the project and brought it to a publisher. In 1997, it was finally reprinted in a single edition, bringing Warhol and Frankfurt’s tongue-in-cheek book back to life for a new audience. And what can we say? Not only is it an ode to a very special friendship, it’s still the best cookbook on the market for people who don’t cook! It’s always been one of our favorite books in the entire world, and we are so happy to have found one to share with you.