What is lunch? Workers are called back to the office, in terms of the potential for expensive noon, spoiled for choice. But the humble packed lunch doesn’t seem to have experienced the same RTO renaissance.
Kantar’s research shows that the number of times workers brought lunch boxes from their homes has soaked slightly over the past few years.
It’s possible that an office worker is missing out on the trick. We asked top food writers and Financial Times followers what they thought they had made the perfect lunch. Certainly, some of their suggestions have put a little effort into it than others, but the ideas of these experts show that with clever preparation and creativity, food from home is as delicious, diverse and healthy as what you might pick up on the go.
Claer Barrett
Financial Times Consumer Editor
In my previous work, I have brought lunch to the office much more often than I pay a “convenience tax” on take-out food. At first, this was purely about saving money. Now it is also about forcing you to make healthier choices by deciding what to eat in advance.
Expanding your time as much as possible is the key to embedding habits. My number one rule? Always prepare the night before – the mornings are stressful enough. Next, double up. To save time, I try to make something for dinner I do for lunch the next day – perhaps with a subtle twist. Risotto reheats and moves well, and most pasta dishes can be reused coldly in salads.
Make life easier for yourself. Invest in a leakproof flanch box – you won’t regret it. My desk drawer includes a Swiss fruit knife and a portable cutlery set. But I try not to eat in front of the screen – when I drag myself into the FT dining room, there is always a random meeting.
My Top Pack Lunch
Adding extra chicken or fish fillets to your grill pan at night will easily form the basis of a protein-rich salad tomorrow. My go-to lunchbox involves organizing these luxury square miles of salad bars and adding this few leaves, crispy vegetables and half packs of cooked whole grains (a merchant’s gourmet or cheap supermarket imitation). These are the gods of fiber for a second, and can be eaten cold even if it is hot.
Brendan Lew
“Conbini” of Melbourne bracken and chef author
From simple onigiri (rice balls) to elaborate vent boxes filled with vent boxes filled with one marsh (pickles), it is packed with specialties ranging from wobbling beef to sea urchins in Hokkaido.
Achieving parents may make a character vent: character vent: character vent, which cuts the student with meat, vegetables, and seaweed to resemble his favorite cartoon character. A office worker or woman is generally a simpler bento. A rice bed topped with proteins such as colourji (fried chicken), grilled fish, Hamburg (meat and onion patty) salads and marinated vegetables. Pickles such as Benishaga (ginger) and Takuan (radish radish) cleanse the palate.
The crown jewels of packed lunches in Japan are picked up at ekiben, local specialty boxes, train stations and special shops. There are over 2,000 varieties. I hope that as I bite into the Kusayama (ginger sauce and pork) exuberant in Kobe, I see Kobe’s skyscrapers transitioning to mountainous landscapes and flooded rice fields, I hope that other countries will have a boxed lunch just as seriously as Japan.
My Top Pack Lunch
Chicken curry is the Japanese equivalent of chicken nuggets and is one of my favorite proteins, adding richness to the vent. Cut chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and marinate them with soy, liquor, ginger, sugar, salt and sesame seeds. Coat into a 2:1 mix of potato starch and flour and fry in batches. It cools and then acts as a vent. A 1.5cm bed of rice is lightly drizzled with a teriyaki-like sauce with vegetables and pickles.
IXTA BelfRage
Mezcla recipe developers and authors
For me, a delicious lunch is about food that is not ready for a nap by 3pm and is rejuvenating me. They tend to avoid wheat pasta and sandwiches. My ideal lunch is a crunchy, chopped salad with solid proteins such as canned fish, smoked mackerel and grilled meat.
At home, dress up the salad with olive oil, salt and chopped chili. I sprinkle fresh herbs on top, but don’t mix them so that they don’t wilt or discolor them. Just before eating, I squeeze half lemon or lime, squeeze the hot sauce and make it all come true. You can replicate this at work by holding some essentials in the office, or bringing the components individually and doing last minute assembly when it’s time to eat.
That’s a far cry from the dream school lunch I grew up in Italy. Always pasta and risotto, always perfect, still al dente. I wish I could still eat that way, but these days I’ve sent me directly to Abbiocco (my favorite Italian word for that blissful sleepy feeling after a big meal).
My Top Pack Lunch
One of my go-tos is canned mackerel in olive oil tossed with a mix of celery, cucumber, kohlrabi, beetroot and tomatoes. For carbohydrates, add roasted sweet potatoes, pre-cooked short grain rice or brown rice pasta.
Hannah Rock
Editor, FT Editor
I might call you an extreme packed luncheon – I’m committed to a cause that has brought the same sandwiches every day since I first started working 20 years ago. Cucumber, cheese (formerly cheddar, now goats: an upgrade that corresponds to wage growth over the past 18 years) was slapped into brown bread. There is no butter. Two tangerines. It all fits perfectly into one (and very good) Tupperware and tucks it into the coat pocket.
If that sounds unstable, then well, that’s right. It is also the subject of many office mischievous people. However, this strict adherence to the routine has a great advantage. My calculations have saved me somewhere north of £20,000 over the years. Conceptualizing, planning and executing daily lunch takes exactly 30 seconds and zero headspace. And it leaves plenty of space for a slap dinner every night. Really, I want to think, the jokes are with everyone else.
My Top Pack Lunch
My only packed lunch: Here’s how you make a sandwich that will keep you going for your entire career. Ideally take two slices of sown brown bread (my frugality is limited). Thinly chop six slices of cucumber. Layer five round, round shapes of goat cheese. Cut in half and place in a Tupperware box small enough to keep the sandwich intact. Smug at your desk or secretly eat at your nearest expensive lunch chain.
Saskia Sidey
Food stylist and author of “You Love This”
My relationship with my packed lunch is nostalgic. A grade trip with a small brown paper bag, a penguin bar or an orange club.
Whether it’s a picnic, a school trip or going to work, the most enjoyable part is that it has all these mix and match elements. If I were at home I would not have fruits and desserts. As you go outside, you think you need snacks, actual main meals, and something fun to drink.
As an adult, I don’t pack much lunch, but if I’m filming all day or going out, I bring lunch. That includes things that must be cut with affection, like flat peaches and Alfonso mangoes. My soda might have been Fanta or Diet Cola. These days it is often prebiotic soda. And you have to have a packet of potato chips. In fact, I go to the main where you can eat with potato chips – I love the salad you can scoop up with them – it adds a bit of fun.
My Top Pack Lunch
To make my Green Goddess salad, start with a cabbage head, a white or hispi head. Chop it with cucumbers, spring onions and chives and really small pieces. Make the dressing with garlic, avocado, tarragon, lemon juice and vinegar. Add nutrient yeast and cashew nuts. Cover the salad generously with dressing, paste it onto Tupperware, then spoon it with tortilla chips.
Sabrina Ghayour
Author of “Persiana”
When it comes to stuffed lunches, protein is really important. When I was working in town, I bring in something like salmon that doesn’t need to be reheated. I then nip into the supermarket and bought a pack of asparagus or spinach. I found a good way to make non-slavish food, as you don’t want to be that person in the office.
I’m currently working with companies that provide in-house food to businesses, so I’m thinking a lot about what I need in the middle of the day. You have to be maintained. Sometimes I think, “I want a bacon sandwich, a Mars bar, or a cola.” But what you’re looking for is satisfying and will excite your palate. Dopamine hit. Otherwise it’s all south from there.
Sadly, I think the number one reason why we choose the meals we do is that we are pushing time. But there are shortcuts. You can buy pre-cooked chicken and remove the skin. You can make delicious Asian throws cheaply. Your dressing will be sweet chili peppers and lime juice. Get raw couscous in a bowl, add smoked paprika, tomato puree and dried chives, stir in the tanned tomatoes, then pour into boiling water. Leave it for a few minutes and it will taste good.
My Top Pack Lunch
What I create repeatedly is what I call Mexican salads. It’s not really Mexican, but it has the vibe in the sense that it baked corn. In the pot, I boil the entire corn cob – not tinned – and I leave it as is to empty the water and carbonize it. After getting a third of the cans of spinach and beans, add avocado, tomato, onion, or the vegetables I’m knocking on, and add some corn that’s peeled off the cob. I stick to some cheddar or feta. If you can roast a small chunk of sweet potato with a little spice, that’s a bonus. In fact, it’s an unintentional, perfect meal.
