I’ve tweeted it, I’ve spoken about it on my podcast, and others have given their own riffs on the idea, but I have never written it down here on my own site.

I’m talking about my favorite thing to eat for lunch. I call it French Lunch because it is always what I imagine is in the lunchbox of every hard laborer in France (I have no idea if that is, in fact, the case).

It’s pretty easy actually. Here’s what I do:

• Grab a good fresh crusty baguette. Good bread is the foundation so spare no expense here and aim for fresh as possible. Made today? Good. Made less than an hour ago? Better!

• Get a creamy-style cheese like Brie or Délice de Bourgogne (or, occasionally, I’ll go for something a bit more firm and nutty like Manchego depending on my mood).

• Then a bunch of good red grapes. Sometimes I do a ripe pear if grapes are not in season or otherwise hard to find. But fruity and juicy and sweet is the goal here.

It’s very simple, requires nothing but a knife (and even that is optional if you want to go all “beast mode” about it), and zero prep. Just take it out, plate it and eat it.

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