Thanks for the Memories: A Review of “Leave Me Alone with the Recipes: The Life, Art & Cookbook of Cipe Pineles”
One of Cipe Pineles’ illustrations from Leave Me Alone with the Recipes. Credit: cipepineles.com
February 17, 2021
Cipe Pineles never intended to be profiled, at least not for a culinary hobby that she kept in a journal and took to the grave. The former art director at Conde Naste, an amazing accomplishment in itself for a woman in pre-mid-century America, left behind an amazing legacy, but a deeply personal one. Discovered two decades after her death, her work, in the form of beautifully illustrated recipes from her Eastern European Jewish family, has stirred up quite a bit of attention.
Part recipe, part memoir, Pineles’ work, which she titled Leave Me Alone with the Recipes, was found posthumously in an unpublished, hardcover sketchbook by San Francisco illustrator, Wendy MacNaughton (author of Knives & Ink) and writer Sarah Rich (author of Urban Farms) at an antiquarian book fair in 2013. In it, Pineles laid out 25 family recipes in double-page spreads, all illustrated and hand-lettered, and each with a unique, whimsical composition. Enamored by the visual impact of the drawings and the personal nature of the recipes, MacNaughton and Rich snatched up their find and, with two other writers, embarked on a deep-dive mission to uncover Pineles’ story.
Their quest was one “paved with serendipity” which lead them to edit and publish the unsung designer’s work in a beautiful compendium titled, The Life, Art, & Cookbook of Cipe Pineles: Leave Me Alone with the Recipes. The group stitched together a robust and thorough profile of Pineles through personal and professional connections, tracking down her step-daughter (who gave her blessing for the project) and former colleagues, and unearthing childhood diaries, high school essays, and even an old yearbook. And, as it turns out, one of Pineles’ prolific connections in the New York art, design, and publishing worlds was none other than Mimi Sheraton herself; at 20 years her junior, she had worked directly under Pineles at Seventeen Magazine.
MacNaughton et al. paint Pineles as clearly accomplished in her career and a strong pioneer in her profession. Her artwork is certainly a testament to this, yet the personal nature of her illustrated recipes seem like a quiet ode to her family, their heritage, and traditions. Apparently, the book had never been seen beyond her immediate kin, and even Sheraton admits that despite their familiarity and shared heritage, she “had never heard her utter a word that would suggest (they shared) any of this kind of food.”
The book gives us a privileged and intimate, if not a bit voyeuristic window into Pineles’ cherished family memories, ones that nourished her soul and kept her company. With her level of professional impact, she was an influencer, certainly. And while she could have shared this with the world via Instagram or FaceBook had times been different, it seems quite likely that she would have preferred to shy away from self-promotion. At least that’s what her book’s title seems to imply.