Pandemic’s Most Impacted Meal? Lunch, Says MET Food Historian

As a historian, MET Director of Gastronomy Megan Elias takes the long view of the way society interacts with food. The author and associate professor of the practice put the midday meal in focus with her 2014 tome, Lunch: A History, and was recently interviewed by Quartz to shed light on how she thinks the ritual will be impacted by 2020’s global pandemic.

“The place of food in our lives is going to change,” Elias told Quartz. “People will be making their lunches more. You save money, you have some more choice, you can make something you really like, you can control the portions.”

Still, Elias posits, there are elements of social comfort associated with lunch that many may seek to hold onto, when it’s deemed safe to pivot from being professionally home-bound to returning to shared offices with coworkers. “That connection is going to seem more precious, and may take the form of people having lunches, bringing in food, and finding spaces that they can share, even in the office,” she said.