What the Fricassee?

As someone who makes his living in the kitchen, it has never been my plight to confront the “bring-or-buy” (lunch) dilemma. But if the oven was not my office—and I could no longer, say, bake fresh donuts for my midday meal—I would do two things: first, I would buy one of those (pictured below); and second, I would pack the skita out of it (pardon my Swedish).

Why would I pack my lunch? For one thing, the difference between spending $3/day for "sack lunch" groceries v $5/day for eating out—probably a conservative daily differential—would over the course of a year save you $500. If some bloke started doing this back in 1988, and invested his savings at 4% interest, he would've saved enough by 2006 to pay off his kid's first year at the average US four-year public college. (Granted, you may not think about things quite in this way, but you might if you'd put as many buns in the oven as I have ;)

Otherwise, though, why pay for something you could make yourself using fresher, cheaper ingredients? If pressed for time, try something quick and easy. Like what? Glad you asked. I would suggest PB&J, but that can get complicated (I still remember that damn culinary school lecture: "One knife, jelly first; Two knives, doesn't matter"). Rather, I recommend (highly) the chicken salad sandwich. Seriously: chicken + celery + mayonnaise + mystery ingredients = taste euphoria! And you'll only need one knife, I promise.

But before you rush headlong into anything, take heed. According to Helena Echlin at Chow.com, if you're looking to climb the corporate ladder, you might be better off pawning that lunch box in favor of daily delivery from the local sushi bar (see article here). As Helena says: "You shouldn’t bring lunch, because that could suggest you’re not completely focused on your work. People will know that you chose to spoon chicken fricassee into a container rather than get to the office five minutes earlier". Nonetheless, if sending this "lack of focus" signal is a risk you're willing to take, I say go for it.


Gustaf (pictured left) is head chef at Mic's Tape and Brumpelstiltskin's resident aficionado of food and drink.