Let’s Talk Lunch

 As I write this, I’m thinking about lunch, one of the three highlights of my day.  Dinner is recipe testing, breakfast is usually the same thing every day, but lunch is…..a mystery.  Sometimes (often) it’s leftovers from dinner.  Sometimes it’s the remains of something I just photographed for work.  Sometimes it’s just…whatever I can find.

When I worked in an office, lunch was a quest – something new and interesting to bring back to my desk.  Or something to savor in a restaurant, with a book or magazine.  My husband’s lunch I make every morning, and my kids have theirs at school.

But some new cookbooks challenge us to make more of lunch.  Like Lunch at the Shop, from bookshop owner Peter Miller, lovingly photographed by Christopher Hersheimer and Melissa Hamilton.  It’s a serene sort of book, full of pastas and salads and sandwiches and even some ribs that take an hour to make.  It makes you wish you worked in a bookshop, with a kitchen out back.  

Gale Gand’s Lunch is more utilitarian – the next entry in a series that includes desserts, snacks, and brunch.  It’s full of those sandwiches you pay $8.50 for at the shop near the lobby, plus the sort of packable salads you find at the deli counter. 

I like the optimism of these books – the idea that lunch is worth thinking about.  Chances are, though, that lunch will remain a simple, improvisational meal for me.  Because somebody still has to do the dishes before dinner.