What’s for lunch? Workers being called back to the office are spoilt for choice when it comes to pricey midday possibilities. But the humble packed lunch does not appear to have experienced the same RTO renaissance.
The number of times workers have brought lunch boxes from home has dipped slightly in the past couple of years, according to research from Kantar, in part because people are eating out more frequently.
Office workers may be missing a trick. We asked top food writers, and Financial Times devotees, what they thought made the perfect packed lunch. Admittedly, some of their suggestions take a little more effort than others but these expert ideas show that with clever preparation and creativity, food from home can be as delicious, varied and healthy as anything you might pick up on the go — for a fraction of the price.
Claer Barrett
Financial times consumer editor
In my working life so far, I have brought a packed lunch to the office far more often than paying a “convenience tax” for takeaway food. At first, this was purely about saving money. Now, it’s also about forcing myself to make healthier choices by deciding what to eat in advance.
Spending as little of your own time as possible organising this is the key to embedding the habit. My number one rule? Always prep the night before — mornings are stressful enough. Next, double up. To save time, I try to make something for dinner that will do for lunch the next day — perhaps with a subtle twist. Risotto reheats and travels well, and most pasta dishes could be repurposed cold with a salad.
Make life easier for yourself. Invest in a leakproof lunchbox — you won’t regret it. My desk drawer contains a Swiss fruit knife, and a portable cutlery set. However, I try not to eat in front of a screen — dragging myself to the FT canteen always results in a chance meeting, which is how I ended up being commissioned to write this!
Brendan Liew
author of ‘konbini’ and chef at warabi, melbourne
From simple onigiri (rice balls) filled with a single umeboshi (pickled plum) to elaborate bento boxes, packed with specialities from Kobe Wagyu beef to Hokkaido sea urchin, Japan may be closer than anywhere to perfecting the packed lunch.
Overachieving parents sometimes make school children kyara-ben: character bento, with meat, vegetables and nori seaweed cut to resemble a favourite cartoon character. Salarymen or women commonly have simpler bento: a bed of rice topped with a protein, such as karaage (fried chicken), grilled fish or hamburg (sauced meat and onion patty) with salad or marinated vegetables. Pickles, such as beni-shoga (ginger) or takuan (daikon radish) cleanse the palate.
The crowning jewel of packed lunch in Japan though is ekiben, boxes with local specialities, picked up in train stations or special stores. There are more than 2,000 varieties. As I bite into a Kobe shogayaki (pork with ginger sauce) ekiben, watching the high rise buildings of Kobe transition to mountainous landscapes and flooded rice paddies, I can’t help but wish other countries took the boxed lunch as seriously as Japan.
Ixta Belfrage
recipe developer and Author of ‘Mezcla’
For me, a good packed lunch is all about food that keeps me energised, not ready for a nap by 3pm. I tend to steer clear of wheat pasta and sandwiches. My ideal lunch is a crunchy chopped salad with a solid protein like tinned fish, smoked mackerel or grilled meat.
At home, I’ll dress any salad with olive oil, salt and chopped chillies. I scatter fresh herbs over the top but don’t mix them in, to keep them from wilting or discolouring. Just before eating, I squeeze over half a lemon or lime, along with some hot sauce, to bring it all to life. You can recreate this at work by keeping a few essentials in the office, or bringing components separately and doing some last-minute assembly when it is time to eat.
It’s a far cry from the dreamy school lunches I had growing up in Italy. Always pasta or risotto, always perfect, still al dente. I wish I could still eat like that but these days it would send me straight into abbiocco (my favourite Italian word for that blissfully sleepy feeling after a big meal).
Hannah Rock
editor, ft edit
I am what you might call an extreme packed luncher — so committed to the cause that I have brought in the same sandwich every day since I started working two decades ago. Cucumber, cheese (formerly cheddar, now goat: an upgrade roughly commensurate with wage growth over the past 18 years), slapped inside some brown bread. No butter. Two tangerines. It all fits perfectly into a single (and much-prized) piece of Tupperware, which I merrily tuck into my coat pocket — then tuck into — while colleagues enjoy their £8 pots of frippery.
If it sounds abstemious, well, it is. It is also the subject of much office mockery. But this rigid adherence to routine has major upsides. By my calculations I’ve saved somewhere north of £20,000 over the years; the conceptualisation, planning and execution of my lunch each day takes precisely 30 seconds and zero head space; and it leaves plenty of room for a slap-up dinner every night. So really, I like to think, the joke’s on everyone else.
Saskia Sidey
Food stylist and Author of ’you’ll love this’
My association with packed lunches is nostalgic. It’s a school trip with the little brown paper bag, the Penguin bar or orange Club.
Whether it’s a picnic, a school trip or going to work, the most fun part is that you’re bringing all these mix-and-match elements. If I was at home, I wouldn’t be having fruit and a dessert. Because you’re going out, you seem to need a snack, the actual main meal and something fun to drink.
As an adult, I don’t have packed lunch that often but if I’m going to a shoot or out all day, I’d bring my lunch. It would include a bougie fruit — something that has to be lovingly cut up, like a flat peach or alfonso mango. My fizzy drink might have been a Fanta or Diet Coke; these days it’s often a prebiotic soda. And you’ve got to have a packet of crisps. In fact, I’d go for a main that I could eat with the crisps — I love a salad that you can scoop up with them — that adds a bit of fun too.
Sabrina Ghayour
author of ‘persiana’
When it comes to packed lunches, protein is really important. When I worked in the City, I’d bring in something I didn’t have to reheat, like salmon. Then I’d nip to the supermarket and buy a pack of asparagus or spinach, which I’d wilt in the microwave. I found good ways of making non-smelly food, because you don’t want to be that person in an office.
I now work with companies that provide in-house food for firms, so I think a lot about what you need in the middle of the day. You have to be sustained. Sometimes you just think, ‘I want a bacon sandwich, a Mars bar and a Coke.’ But what you’re looking for is something satisfying, that excites your palate; a dopamine hit. Otherwise, it’s all south from there.
Sadly, I think the number one factor in why we pick the meals we do is that we’re pushed for time. But there are shortcuts. You can buy cooked chicken and peel the skin off. You can cheaply make a yummy Asian slaw; your dressing can be sweet chilli and lime juice. You can get raw couscous in a bowl, add smoked paprika, tomato purée, dried chives and stir in sun-dried tomatoes, then pour over boiling water. Leave for a few minutes and it becomes delicious.
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