The Bon Appétit Guide to Actually Enjoying Your Lunch at Work
Our secret to making easy lunches for the work week starts with a few simple strategies: the right “equipment,” a well-stocked desk pantry, recipes we can’t wait to eat—oh, and some snacks we wouldn’t get through the day without. We’ll admit that not everything we bring is a composed dish (have you heard of desk dip!?) or made that morning (two-day-old leftovers can still be delicious, especially with a little drizzle of chile crisp on top). But whatever we bring, we know it will never be as depressing as ordering delivery for the third day in a row, or as disappointing as the realization that we’ve just paid $20 for a bowl of soggy curly kale and a slice of avocado. (Extras: it’s how they getcha.) Here's how we make lunch something to look forward to every day—even if we’re still going to eat it while answering emails.
Photo by Alex Lau1/20The BA Staff Registry for Dining al Desko
We’ll do anything to make deskside dining feel more luxurious—from stashing ceramic bowls in filing cabinets to storing tins of flaky salt next to the stapler. Our reasoning is simple: The right tools can make even questionable leftovers feel thoughtful. From reusable sandwich wraps to the ideal mug to the one utensil to rule them all, these tried-and-true products keep BA staffers prepared—and happily fed—in every kind of lunch situation.
Illustration by Łukasz Golędzinowski2/20How I Make My Lunch Every Day Without Losing My Sanity
Long before associate editor Christina Chaey started working at Bon Appétit, she got into the routine of packing her lunch every day. Nearly a decade later, the habit has stuck. Here she shares a few of the strategies she’s incorporated into her life to make bringing lunch to work a little more enjoyable, varied, healthy, and, above all, not a big deal.
3/20“If I'm putting the time and energy into cooking a nice dinner—whether it's just for myself or for a group—you better believe I'm cooking enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day. If I'm following a recipe, I just add some extra protein, grains, or veg. Or I’ll double a sauce or dressing to use on whatever I throw together in the coming days. And if I'm really on it, I'll bring a lemon to work, which livens up just about anything so it doesn't taste like an afterthought.” —Emma Wartzman, assistant editorial producer
Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Kat Boytsova4/20Desk Recipe 1: Steak Salad With Harissa Potatoes and Crunchy Radishes
The key to unwilted greens in your lunch salad lies in the proper layering technique—but also knowing when to dress. Start with the heaviest and wettest ingredients at the bottom of your container, which in this case, means those harissa-marinated potatoes, then add the steak, and then top with crunchy radish and crispy arugula last. Only toss it all together right before you’re ready to eat. Oh, and those harissa vinaigrette potatoes? Yeah, those does double duty as the dressing, so you don’t have to bring a second container.
Get the recipe: Steak Salad With Harissa Potatoes and Crunchy Radishes
5/20“I have big meal prep ambitions that sometimes end up taking five hours on a Sunday afternoon—which I'm fine with, most of the time. But other times, I remember that home-cooking isn't about being the best, it’s about doing the best I can. If I’m making this slam dunk cauliflower rice pilaf, you can bet I'm buying the riced cauliflower from Trader Joe's instead of breaking down a cauliflower, processing it in four batches, and making a huge mess in my kitchen. If I’m roasting squash for grain bowls, I won’t judge myself for buying the pre-cut squash to save myself from big knife anxiety. I've been known to buy frozen cooked brown rice before, and I won't apologize for that either!” —Alex Beggs, senior staff writer
Illustration by Łukasz Golędzinowski6/20Why Desk Lunch Is a Dish Best Served Cold
After Soupgate 2019, when associate editor Hilary Cadigan dropped a whole bowl of hot soup on her lap just as Anna Wintour was passing by her desk, she promised she’d never bend to the indignity of the office microwave again. Instead, she would forge a new path. A fridge-temp path, but one that decidedly didn’t suck.
Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Kat Boytsova7/20Desk Recipe No. 2: Roadie Hoagie
At what age did it stop being okay to bring sandwiches for lunch? The right answer: Never! Which is why this recipe was created for adults who commute to work with their lunches not in a cute tin box, but at the bottom of their overstuffed totes. That’s right, this roadie hoagie with beans, greens, and a briny olive vinaigrette checks all the right boxes: It’s protein rich but meat free, made to be kept at room temp, and designed to improve the more it squishes under the weight of your things.
Get the recipe: Roadie Hoagie
8/20“I'm not one of those lunch-salad people who lines up daily to pay $18 for lettuce from a trough. I AM the kind of person who brings her own salad for lunch. That's because I've learned that just about any protein-based dinner—from stir-fried chicken to harissa-roasted salmon to marinated lentils—can become a salad if you do it right the night before: Hold back a handful of cooked chicken pieces or a few strips of steak (or roasted veg or tofu or tempeh) to use for tomorrow. Then in the morning, throw on your other favorite toppings (avocado, feta, and hard-boiled eggs are my go-tos), give it a drizzle of oil and vinegar, and your not-sad lunch salad is ready.” —Amanda Shapiro, Healthyish editor
Illustration by Nicko Phillips9/20Is It Ever Okay...to Eat Week-Old Crab Curry at Work?
And more solicited (but questionable) advice for your next office lunch.
Photo by Alex Lau10/20All the Snacks BA Editors Stash at Their Desks
Just because you brought your (damn good, homemade) lunch doesn’t mean you won’t still want a snack to get you through your work day. And while we’re all about that 11 a.m. banana or 3 p.m. hardboiled egg, sometimes, those just won’t do. For the moments when all you want is something salty, sweet, or sometimes both, what you’re really craving is some indulgence.
Here, a short list of the tasty treats our editors keep at their desks.
11/20“If my Magic 8 Ball reading for the week is showing up hazy, I'll make a sauce and see where it leads me. Chris Morocco's jalapeño miso-tahini dressing can go on everything from crispy chickpeas to salad to leftover cold salmon. For something sweeter, Andy Baraghani's tahini-honey dressing is easy enough to make in the morning before work and is incredible on roast squash, broccoli, or cauliflower. I've written about my obsession with this walnut-anchovy dressing for hearty greens before, but it also makes a great veg dip. Oh, and I'm never mad about having fresh buttermilk ranch in the fridge.” —Alex Beggs, senior staff writer
Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Kat Boytsova12/20Desk Recipe No. 3: Curried Peanut Dip
You’ve never met a better sad-lunch savior than this desk dip, a simple throw-together last resort to save you from that overpriced salad bar. This is the kind of thing you can use to clean out your fridge with—leftover rotisserie chicken, an extra roasted potato, those cukes you couldn’t find a use for all taste delicious when dunked in this addictively silky, spicy-sweet sauce.
Get the recipe: Curried Peanut Dip
13/20“No matter what my day looks like, I inevitably get hit with a post-lunch slump around 3 or 4 p.m. That’s when I go for an espresso and a pastry. That concentrated dose of caffeine plus a satisfying measure of sugar and fat is key to getting me through the day energy wise. But they’re also essential for helping me stave off pre-dinner hunger—and all of the bad decisions I make when I’m about to bonk, but still hours away from that last meal of the day.” —Chris Morocco, deputy food editor
Illustration by Łukasz Golędzinowski14/20I Eat Lunch At My Desk and I Like It
When social media manager Emily Schultz’s grandma calls to check in, it’s usually a Tuesday around 12:45 p.m.—the time people in T.V. shows gather in a ‘staff lounge’ to eat their Tupperware-packed lunches. “Don’t you have a lunch break?!” She’ll ask, concerned. The answer is yes. But Emily spends it at her desk, not because she’s a crazed New York Media person. But because she actually enjoy eating her lunch in front of her computer.
