The term "set lunch" is well known to many people: office workers, tourists, visitors to restaurants, cafes. In France, for example, such dinners are called “Menu de Jure”, in the Czech Republic - “Denna nabidka”.
Complex lunch. What it is?
A set lunch is a fairly hearty and inexpensive lunch consisting of simple dishes. In those companies whose employees can eat free of charge at the workplace, set meals are either prepared by a professional chef (on the staff of the company or invited), or they are brought to the office ready-made and only warmed up.
Set meals must meet several mandatory requirements. First, of course, they must be tasty and satisfying. Secondly, the daily menus of these meals are not the same. Finally, thirdly, their cost should be moderate. Therefore, as a rule, set meals consist of the simplest dishes that do not require expensive ingredients or long and complicated preparation. In addition, in order to save money, many of the components of the appetizers and the first (or second) courses included in such meals may be the same. For example, if the first dish is borscht, an appetizer can be either a vegetable salad, one of the components of which is finely chopped cabbage, or a vinaigrette, the main component of which is boiled beets. Or if the first course is a soup with meatballs (minced meat), the second course can be cutlets or meatballs made from the same minced meat with different side dishes.
What should be a complex lunch
Complex meals should be not only inexpensive, hearty and tasty, but also healthy. Therefore, it is recommended to include vegetable salads in their composition, which stimulate the appetite well and contain many vitamins and minerals.
There are many options for a set lunch, for example, an appetizer - a salad of cabbage, carrots and radish, seasoned with vegetable oil and vinegar; the first course is cabbage soup with beef broth; the second dish is beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes. Or an appetizer - vinaigrette, the first course - borscht in chicken broth, the second course - fried chicken with stewed vegetables or boiled pasta.
In many companies, the tradition of the Soviet era has been preserved: one of the days of the week (usually Thursday) is declared a fish day, that is, the first and second courses (and sometimes snacks) are prepared from fish. Then the menu can be something like this: an appetizer - a vegetable salad, the first dish - a fish soup (according to any recipe), the second dish - a piece of fried or boiled fish with mashed potatoes. In most cases, serving of desserts with a set lunch is not provided.
