Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals – Innovative Photographic Art for Foodies, Celebrating Classic and Contemporary Fiction with Culinary Excerpts

by Dinah Fried

Fifty Iconic Culinary Scenes from Literary Classics Sure to Delight Readers, Foodies, and Photo-Junkies Alike

Fictitious Dishes serves up a delectable assortment of photographic interpretations of culinary moments from contemporary and classic literature. Showcasing famous meals such as the madcap tea party from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the watery gruel from Oliver Twist, the lavish chicken breakfast from To Kill a Mockingbird, the stomach-turning avocado-and-crabmeat salad from The Bell Jar, and the seductive cupcakes from The Corrections, this unique volume pairs each place setting with the text from the book that inspired its creation. Interesting food facts and entertaining anecdotes about the authors, their work, and their culinary predilections complete this charming book, which is sure to whet the appetites of lovers of great literature and delicious dishes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Art, Photography, Books About Books, Cookbooks, Cooking

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2014

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, on the one hand this book is gorgeous.

Dina Fried began the book as actually a school project - photographing famous dishes from fiction (like Moby Dick's clam chowder, or roasted potatoes from the Secret Garden).

Each dish is beautifully photographed with aesthetically pleasing dishes, backgrounds and linens - all trying to be accurate to the story.

The photos are accompanied with grounding text from the book and a few comments from the author regarding where the inspiration came from.

The only thing missing? THE RECIPES!!

The author did an amazing job of creating all of these wonderful interpretations of the great literary works but now all I want to do is be able to recreate what she did at my home.

Instead, I'm stuck googling 1850s-era clam chowder recipes in hopes of finding one where the finished product resembles the Fictitious Dishes Moby Dick picture.

I feel like this book could've gone down as one of the most amazing and in-depth literary cookbooks out there but alas...not a single recipe.

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[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short book that can be read at lunchtime. I'm not sure what I expected but was somewhat disappointed. The author covers food eaten in scenes from various books with a quote from each book, accompanied by a picture of the dishes. It's kinda' fun but nothing special.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book

It includes things eaten in over 40 books.

The highlights of this book are:

-It tallies a fine list of books to consider for my TBR
-It adds little known facts about the 'food' consumed
-It provides tempting pictures of the food

I highly recommend this book for its info and 'stressless' approach

5 stars

[Beth Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is appealing on a few different levels. Anyone who loves books and reading would appreciate it because it contains quotes from a variety of books. But foodies and photography lovers would be fans as well because the quotes and photographs are all about the food that's mentioned in the books. The book is small, only 117 pages, half of which are the photographs, so it can easily be read in one short sitting. A few of the books mentioned in the book are Moby Dick, The Secret Garden and To Kill a Mockingbird. I have two favorites: Chicken Soup with Rice (Maurice Sendak) because that was one of my favorite childhood books, and The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri) because not only was that a great book but the food talked about and mention sounds so good (an Americanized version of bhelpuri, which is a snack made with puffed rice, vegetables and tamarind). There's also interesting facts about the books, authors and foods underneath each quote, which adds to the overall interest. If a sequel comes out I'll definitely purchase that one too. This is a book I'll look at several times when the mood strikes.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this but the The Catcher in the Rye sandwich said it was swiss cheese but the picture was clearly American and I can't forgive that.

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like following an Instagram user who loves books and food. The author selects texts that talk about food from fifty books (you've either read, or at least heard of them all), and then creates a meal from the text and takes a photo of said meal. The book is a collection of these texts and photographs, and it's quite fun to see how the text is interpreted. I especially enjoyed the little factoids at the end of each text. A note for foodies, recipes are not included.

This little book can be read in one sitting, but I'd suggest taking breaks to eat and nap between readings/viewings.

[Sunil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting assortment of photographs, like an Instagram of meals from various fiction books - ranging from Moby Dick to Ulysses. The facing page typically covers a few interesting trivia about the food or the context of meals in the books. I don't remember or know all of the meals in the context but they surely look quite appetising. The book is slightly dear at the moment but I feel it's worth the investment, will make a good coffee-table book or something to flip through with new guest or to discuss on a date.

[Aziff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictitious Dishes is a humble but beautiful book. D. Fried picks out fifty the most illustrious passages of food from acclaimed literature. Its concept is absurdly simple: carefully crafted food photography, the referred passage from the literature and food trivia. What you have is a beautiful collection of these wondrous dishes in literature, illustrated. This is a perfect book for foodies and literature lovers alike.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Binging With Babish but make it books!

I know I'm in the minority, but food in books doesn't usually make the hugest impression on me unless it's explicitly part of the plot. I've read a number of the books cited, but only a handful of the foods stuck in my memory.
I think it has something to do with my very weak mind's eye, though. Regardless: gorgeous.
This is on my list to buy when I eventually have a coffee table to put it on.

[Eva B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One star off for somehow putting a picture of a sandwich with yellow cheese for an excerpt that clearly says Swiss, how did no one catch that? Beyond that should've-been-fixed-during-edits mistake, this was a super cute book that paired aesthetic photos with food descriptions pulled from various novels--it is NOT a cookbook and wasn't meant to be one. If you aren't a massive lit nerd or someone interested in photography (specifically food photography), you won't get much out of this, but I enjoyed it.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find pictures and links here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

If I was going to write a book (and was also an ace photographer and a brilliant stylist), it would be exactly like Dinah Fried’s Fictitious Dishes. There couldn’t be a more perfect book. Why? It’s best summed up with its subtitle – ‘An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals’.

This gem of a book combines literature, food, beautiful photographs, memorable quotes, and historical and factual detail about the books and foods included. It’s a masterpiece. And difficult to review because I find it tricky to get passed the brilliance of the whole thing.

I stumbled across the book late last year and immediately placed my order. Then I forgot about it for a bit. One day I opened my letterbox and there it was. The afternoon was lost as I became totally engrossed in buttery crumpets from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca; Kerouac’s apple pie; sweet potatoes served with Gone With the Wind style; and a meal of grapefruit, a la Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Fried has selected a range of fifty books, from classics (Lolita, Moby Dick, Emma, Ulysses) and contemporary literature (The Corrections, Valley of the Dolls, American Psycho, Heartburn) to children’s literature (Bread and Jam for Frances, Beezus and Ramona, Anne of Green Gables). A culinary moment from book is recreated and photographed, the detail in each is meticulous.

My favourites are of course from books that are also my favourites – I love the simple roast potatoes pictured for Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, a book that captured my imagination at a very young age; the Southern-fried goodness of the spread for To Kill a Mockingbird; and the array of hors-d’oeuvres for The Great Gatsby.

4.5/5 As a ‘foodie’ read, this is the ultimate.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book! The author took passages from over 50 much-loved, familiar, and often classic pieces of literature and re-created the memorable meals from them. I had such a good time flipping through and looking at all the pictures.

Fictitious Dishes opens with an introduction by the author in which she explains how this project came to be, and how she went about re-creating the settings. It's not an overly long introduction, and I love getting the "inside scoop" on books!

Each book/photo pairing is set up the same in Fictitious Dishes. On the left page you have the book title, author, and excerpt and on the right side you have the photo of the place setting and meal. A bonus (I love bonuses!) is that you also get fun facts relating to the book/author/food! For instance, on The Secret Garden page you learn that the author was a Christian Scientist, that the potato was the first vegetable grown in space, and that a hen can lay as many as 335 eggs per year-one egg every 26 hours.

I was so excited to see so many of my personal favorites featured in this book, such as Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and many more! (If you're curious, the featured "meal" for Anne of Green Gables is the currant wine scene... You'll need to pick up a copy of the book to see the picture!) I give this book a double thumbs up and recommend it to all my bibliophile friends out there.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the concept. This is a really fun book, and it's really fun to take a particular aspect of fiction and make it real. The photos are really cute and clearly a lot of thought went into them. Unfortunately some of them are just not very good. A few tend to be a little on the nose, and it seems like she crammed in as much detail as possible into some of them. Often enough the photo speaks for itself; extra junk isn't needed to communicate the point.

There were a few that stuck in my craw: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Blueberries for Sal, and American Psycho. The staging of the GWTDT was so clean. I know they're Swedish, but that book is so dark and grimy a perfectly clean setting just doesn't make any sense. Blueberries for Sal quotes the fact that she puts three blueberries in her bucket then eats them, and in the photo the bucket is full of blueberries. Three blueberries! That's all you need. American Psycho was interesting, but there was a business card for the main character next to the place setting. Ugh, the reader need not be hit over the head.

Still! A fun book and a worthwhile project.

[James McIntosh Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it may be a bit difficult to stay fully interested all the way through it, this is a neat book. I can appreciate the vision, imagination, creativity, effort, and skill that was put into its making. Fried had to do her research, locate interesting items for the photos, and then arrange and take the unique photos.

There are many interesting, and sometimes fascinating, facts about authors, books, foods, and history. I also discovered some new books through this one. And although there is no variation in their perspectives, many of the photos are enjoyable to look at and see how Fried envisioned and recreated the scenes copied from the various pieces of literature, bringing them to life in a new way. (The tiny icons created for and associated with each one are also fun.)

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My two favorite things, food and books, together. I should have loved this, right? But this book just didn't really have a spark for me. It was an excerpt from a book, a few facts about the book and the food mentioned, and a picture of a recreation of the meal from the book. Even writing this now, I feel like that's a cool idea. But it just wasn't very exciting.

The photos felt very static. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I think maybe the issue was the distance the camera was from the food. If the pictures have been more close up of the meals, I think that would have made them better.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oddly lovely and denser than one might expect from a rather high-concept book. Each two page spread is a quote about a meal from an iconic book, with a photo of (or riffing on) said meal. But what takes it to another level is the quite delightful and idiosyncratic footnotes - about the book, or the food, or food in general. Did you know that JD Salinger's father was a ham and cheese importer? Or that there is a Japanese anime Anne of Green Gables postage stamp? Or that blueberries were called "star berries" by Native Americans "thanks to the five-pointed shape of its blossom"?

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie recommended this to me approximately a decade ago and I finally got around to it. Such lovely, fun quotes. I often end up reproducing food from books I read and I'm glad it's not just me! There were a few inconsistencies between the quotes and the pictures that bothered me (but I think that's just me). Entertaining otherwise and super clever.

[conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I squealed at the page dedicated to Confederacy of Dunces.

This is a beautiful tribute, and with the wide variety, excellent choice of excerpts, and detailed pictures, this holds well as a coffee-table book or a casual flip-through and reread.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! What a clever idea.

[Monika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Reading and eating are natural companions, and they've got a lot in common. Reading is consumption. Eating is consumption. Both are comforting, nourishing, restorative, relaxing, and mostly enjoyable. They can energise you or put you to sleep. Heavy books and heavy meals both require a period of intense digestion. Just as reading great novels can transport you to another time and place, meals - good and bad ones alike - can conjure scenes very far away from your kitchen table. Some of my favourite meals convey stories of origin and tradition; as a voracious reader, I devour my favourite books."

That paragraph from the book defines my relationship with food and books so well. Fictitious dishes is a an effort from Dinah Fried on cooking and clicking meals from an album of literature's most memorable meals. I thought I will finish this is an hour but I spent days with it. Reading and re-reading texts from my favourite books. Drooling at the pictures she plated and then imagining what would I do with the meal. Absolutely delightful this book. It's my sisters and I am ordering my own copy soon and oh "Namesake" was a surprise entry in it :)

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I loved the idea of taking photographs of recreations of meals from classic books, I was concerned the resulting book would be too insubstantial to be enjoyable. I was wrong. Each two page spread includes a picture by Dinah, a quote from the book, and some fun facts. The pictures are beautifully done, with incredible attention to detail. Since I’m not used to reading coffee table books, I initially had to make myself slow down to appreciate the pictures. I quickly became engaged enough by the pictures that I lingered over them naturally. The passages from the books complemented the pictures perfectly and the fun facts gave me a little something extra to think about. All in all, an enjoyable and beautiful book. The final product was just as cool as the premise, making this a great gift for the classic lover in your life (even if that means gifting this to yourself).

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a pretty little book, like a gift book, which it was. But what a little treat too! I loved the relevant blurbs out of classic books, especially ones I've read. Made me think even more about passages in books about meals/food. (Book club will understand!) But even more fascinating were the painstakingly detailed photographs--what a talent! Plus the explanatory notes after each excerpt added a tidbit like the french fries you find at the bottom of the sack from a fast food restaurant; somehow they taste better.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so creative, and splendid! The author took food-related passages from famous books and recreated the meals in her own photographs. Included on each page was the book title, author, quoted passage, and added interesting footnotes - relating to the book author, food described, time period, etc. The attention to detail paid to create each photograph was wonderful - I spent so much time soaking in each picture! While I had not read most of the books contained therein, for those that I had read it was quite fun to glance at the book title, study the picture, and easily instantly remember the passage selected even prior to reading the quoted material! And indeed, it made me want to read many more of the books included that I haven't read yet :-)

[Bfisher · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only list that this book is currently on is "Books You Wish Your Library Had that They Didn't". That is a sentiment I wholly disagree with in respect to this book.


The concept of the book is interesting - memorable meals from literature. However, the execution is terribly flawed. Some of the inclusions are absurd, for example, "The Valley of the Dolls" and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" entries have noting to do with food or drink. Even in instances where a truly memorable meal might be described, the manner in which it is done is quite lacking, for example, the Mad Hatter's tea party from "Alice in Wonderland", or Heidi's first meal in her grandfather's hut - a meal which is memorable to me over a span of almost 60 years.

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of time. This was so goddamn boring. The food pictures all look the same. Same top down perspective, same distance, same composition, same lighting...It's incredibly monotonous. And the food doesn't even make you hungry! It doesn't have that appetizing oh-my-god-I-want-that quality that food photography normally does. The book excerpts often made me question why she was inspired by that particular passage as the food isn't even really described all that much. Plus, the book selections were pretty much exclusively the white man canon of "classics" with a few kids books thrown in for what passes as variety. It makes me think that many of the books were chosen because of their classic status and then the author searched through it for mentions of food.

[Cher 'N Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute! Short book with beautiful photos of meals from several well known novels, created based on the descriptions. The author includes the passage from the book that describes the pictured meal next to each photo. There are no recipes, it is just to give a visual of the meal described by the character from each represented novel. At the end, the author thoughtfully included a very brief 1-2 sentence synopsis of all the novels mentioned. It's a sweet, fun read for readers that are also foodies.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book for bibliophiles to spend an hour or so with. There are dozens of food-related excerpts from classic and popular novels, which is fun in and of itself. But what truly makes this book special and enjoyable is the photography. The author has selected food-centered scenes, then painstakingly recreated the meals in photographs. Everything from Proust's madeleines to the rotten garbage in Metamorphosis. Delightful.

[Kim Nolen · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a complete disappointment. I paid $17 for this book. I at least expected a few recipes! I guess this is what passes for "art" and "literature" in some circles but not mine. Just contrived photos accompanying a quote from a real piece of literature. Then the author adds a paragraph(or less) of information that may or may not even pertain to that literature (which anyone could find by blindly Googling any subject). That was $17 I could have spent on a real book!

[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photographs of famous dishes from literature, including toasted bread and cheese from Heidi, cupcakes from The Corrections, and the “raspberry cordial” from Anne of Green Gables. There are foods you definitely expect (madeleines!) but also many I didn’t remember, both from children’s and adult books. The author does not include recipes, which I personally found nice. I’m not going to be cooking these dishes; I just enjoy looking at pictures of food.

[pianogal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was thinking it was, but still good. This book is mostly photographs of food reproduced from books. There are brief passages included that the author used to stage her photos.

I really thought it would be more of a recipe book, but there were no recipes in this book. Still fun, but not quite as helpful.