Literature helped me survive most of the long and boring days of my (first 12 years of) formal education. I secretly read in class, keeping the book on my knees, under the desk. I love stories and what they taught me, and up to this day I believe that ‘skipping class’ and diving deep into my books is one of the best choices I ever made. It was during that period that I read most of the stories from which designer and writer Dinah Fried took the inspiration for this project. She cooks, designs and photographs some of the most famous meals from some of the most famous novels. And seeing each of these photos, feels like the first time you watch a film made after a book you really loved.

All the ‘fictional meals brought to life’ have been collected in a photo book called Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Famous Meals.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, 1971

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 1837

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 1963

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1915

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1851

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, 2005

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 1980

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951

On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1957

Heidi by Joanna Spyri, 1880

Fictitious Dishes, Dinah Fried, 2014