Whether it is a meal in a pill, a feast in a stick of gum, a spontaneous assembly of atoms, a green wafer made of people or a re-hydrated pizza puck, science fiction and fantasy has amassed a widely speculative variety of future foods to fuel the people. What the food in “The Jetsons,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “Soylent Green” and “Back to the Future” seems to revolve around is its convenience.
Whether it is a meal in a pill, a feast in a stick of gum, a spontaneous assembly of atoms, a green wafer made of people or a re-hydrated pizza puck, science fiction and fantasy has amassed a widely speculative variety of future foods to fuel the people. What the food in “The Jetsons,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the...