Menú del día at 60: Spain's set-price lunch faces changing eating habits
Roughly 4m menús del día are served each weekday in Spain, but the mid-1960s tourist invention is under pressure from time-poor diners, cheaper 'dish of the day' rivals and rising costs for small restaurants.
Menú del día at 60: Spain's set-price lunch faces changing eating habits
Roughly 4m menús del día are still served each weekday in Spain, more than half a century after the set-price lunch became part of everyday Spanish life. Its history has now been charted in a new book by the Spanish food journalist Lakshmi Aguirre, titled 'Menú del Día: Everyday Scenes of a First Course, a Second Course and Pudding'.
A tourist menu born of the Franco regime
The menú del día began in the mid-1960s as a tourist menu dreamed up by Francisco Franco's information and tourism minister, Manuel Fraga. Keen to show foreign visitors, in the aftermath of the post-civil-war "years of hunger", that Spanish food was plentiful, good and affordable, the regime gave it fixed rules and prices.
The original format was prescriptive:
- a soup starter
- a main course chosen from at least three options, based on egg, fish or meat, with a side dish
- a fruit, sweet or cheese pudding
- a quarter-litre of wine, required by law to be Spanish reds and whites, pure, clean and pleasant, with an alcohol content of not less than 12%
The price was set at between 50 and 250 pesetas. In the early 1970s the menú del día was rebaptised, to make it look less like an attempt to woo tourists and to suggest that ordinary Spaniards could enjoy it too.
Declared dead, still standing
In 2009 Ferran Adrià, Spain's best-known chef, went so far as to pronounce the menú dead, blaming changing eating habits, economic downturns and bistro-style restaurants. He criticised restaurants charging €20-€30 (£17-£25) for what should be a simple starter, main and pudding or coffee with bread and a drink.
Yet the report of its death was premature. Around 4m menús are still served each weekday, and the average price today is €14.70.
How the menú is changing
The pressures on the set lunch are real. Time-poor Spaniards increasingly eat food from home or supermarket ready meals, while rising energy and food prices are making it harder for small, family-run restaurants.
The menú itself is adapting:
- the rise of the "dish of the day", a cheaper alternative offering fewer choices than the traditional three or four mains
- some menús now feature Latin American staples, as a reflection of Spain's changing demographics
Aguirre: a meeting point at risk
Most Spaniards, Aguirre said, do not know where the menú came from: "Some people know, but the vast majority don't. It says a lot about us Spaniards; we forget very quickly." In her view the menú reflects the evolution of Spanish society, from its dictatorship origins to a deeply ingrained custom that people now watch fade with nostalgia.
On the Latin American additions, she is untroubled: "The menú del día purists reject such options, but it has always been a reflection of the society that consumes it – and that's exactly how it should be."
Her benchmarks for a good menú spot are simple dishes, a changing menu, non-frozen chips, regulars, and a chalkboard free of any trace of words such as avocado, burrata, tartare, truffle or sourdough bread. Her own ideal would be a vegetable stew, then hake in green sauce or baby squid in ink, and then leche frita (fried custard) or rice pudding.
What she fears is being lost is "a meeting point" - a place where poorer families can eat out and people living alone can find company. The true privilege of the menú, she said, lies "not just in being able to pay for a meal, but also in having the time to enjoy it".
Aguirre's book now records the tradition's history as the menú del día adapts to Spain's changing eating habits.
