Over the past ten years, I’ve become one of those awfully annoying people you might know as “foodies.” I really hate that word, foodie, but if someone were to label me, I’d probably fit somewhere in that designation.
So you can imagine my excitement when I saw a recently released coffee table book called Fictitious Dishes, written by Dinah Fried (such a great last name for a food writer). Food and literature? I’m in. All that’s missing is college football.
In Fictitious Dishes, Fried pulled quotes about meals from famous novels, cooked the food, then took beautiful photos of the result. It’s really a cool concept that is impressively executed.
Here are 6 samples from Dinah Fried’s website (used with permission) with the relevant sentence from each novel. And, okay, maybe the title of this post was misleading–let’s hope the meal from The Metamorphosis doesn’t make you hungry.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
“‘Gracious alive, Cal, what’s all this?’ He was staring at his breakfast plate. Calpurnia said, ‘Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.’ ‘You tell him I’m proud to get it—bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House.’”
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
“When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk.
It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield.”
THE GREAT GATSBY
“On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.”
THE METAMORPHOSIS
“There were old, half-rotten vegetables; bones from the evening meal, covered in white sauce that had gone hard; a few raisins and almonds; some cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two days before; a dry roll and some bread spread with butter and salt….”
MOBY-DICK
“Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favorite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition…”
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
“Stopping before the narrow garage, he sniffed the fumes from Paradise with great sensory pleasure, the protruding hairs in his nostrils analyzing, cataloging, categorizing, and classifying the distinct odors of the hot dog, mustard, and lubricant.”
What beautiful photos, and such a cool project.
I hate hot dogs, but I really want that hot dog form Confederacy of Dunces now. I want to read, and I want to eat.
Read more about the book on Dinah’s site.
All photos used by permission of Dinah Fried.
