The book emerged from a series of five photographs taken by Fried in her college years. She interpreted meals from both contemporary and classic literature and created table spreads for each.
In "Fictitious Dishes," Fried combines photographs of 50 place settings with the literary passages that inspired them. She has shared five of those photographs with Business Insider, beginning with...
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," by Hunter S. Thompson
Hardly a meal, the above setup was inspired by this excerpt:
"By this time he’d opened a new bottle of tequila and was quaffing it down…He sliced the grapefruit into quarters...then into eighths...then sixteenths...then he began slashing aimlessly at the residue."
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
Inspired by this excerpt:
“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."
"Moby Dick or the Whale," by Herman Melville
Inspired by this excerpt:
“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...”
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Inspired by this excerpt:
“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.”
"Oliver Twist," by Charles Dickens
Inspired by this excerpt:
“Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity, ‘Please, sir, I want some more.'”
Published by Harper's Collins, both the book and individual prints of select dishes are available for purchase.
