What food reheats well, and what doesn't

Not everything on a buffet is equally good the next day. Some things are better — a curry improves overnight. Others were only ever going to be good in the first ten minutes.

Knowing which is which is most of the skill, and it's the difference between a box that becomes two good dinners and a box that becomes guilt in the fridge. Here's what we've learned.

How much should you take? Pack for meals, not volume

The instinct is to fill the box. Resist it slightly.

The best box isn't the fullest one. It's the one that becomes two good dinners instead of one enormous plate you can't finish and half a container you end up throwing out — which rather defeats the point.

Think in portions as you pack. Two servings of a curry and some rice will feed you twice. The same volume made up of six different things will feed you once and confuse you.

How do you pack leftovers so they don't leak or go soggy?

Build flat, not tall. The lid has to close properly, and a box packed into a dome won't seal. A flat, even layer also cools faster in the fridge, which matters more than it sounds.

Dense and saucy at the bottom. Curry, dhal, braises — they're heavy and they leak. Put them down first.

Rice or noodles as a base is a good trick. They soak up sauce that would otherwise slosh, and they're better for it.

Keep the crisp things separate. Anything crumbed, roasted or fried goes on top, to one side, as far from the gravy as you can manage. Gravy finds chips. Chips lose.

What food reheats well?

Curries, dhal, chilli and anything pulse-based. These are the stars. The flavours settle overnight and most of them are better on day two than they were on the line.

Braises, stews and slow-cooked sauces. Same reason — they were designed to sit.

Roast vegetables. Pumpkin, potato, carrot, parsnip. Five minutes under a hot grill or in an air fryer and they crisp up again properly.

Rice. Reheats fine, with two caveats: eat it within two days, and only reheat it once.

Pasta bakes and lasagne. Built to be reheated.

What food doesn't reheat well?

Anything crumbed or battered. Schnitzel, spring rolls, tempura, crumbed fish. The coating absorbs moisture in the fridge and comes back soft. An oven or air fryer rescues them far better than a microwave does — but they'll never be what they were.

Chips. Accept it.

Anything with crisp skin. Roast chicken skin, crackling. Delicious there, sad here.

Pastry. Pies and sausage rolls go soggy from the inside. Oven only, never microwave, and manage your expectations.

Steamed greens. They go grey and limp. Leave them on the line for someone eating in.

Sliced roast meat is the borderline one. It reheats badly on its own — dry and leathery — but warmed gently in gravy or a sauce it's fine. Better still, eat it cold in a sandwich the next day and don't reheat it at all.

How to turn one box into two meals

Portion it when you get home, not when you're hungry. Two containers out of one box, straight into the fridge. Hungry-you at 7pm tomorrow will not do this fairly.

Add a starch. A curry portion that feeds one person on its own feeds two with rice, a wrap or some bread. This is the cheapest way to stretch anything.

Change what it is rather than reheating it as-is. A curry thins into a soup with stock, or goes into a toastie. Roast vegetables become a frittata, or the base of a warm salad with whatever's in the fridge. Sliced roast meat becomes sandwiches. Rice becomes fried rice, which is the one situation where day-old rice is the correct ingredient.

Eat the rice first. Two days, not three, and it's the thing that goes off soonest.

How long do leftovers last, and how hot should you reheat them?

Four rules, and they're the ones the NSW Food Authority sets rather than ours.

Two hours to the fridge. Bacteria multiply fastest between 5°C and 60°C, so the clock starts when the food leaves the warmer, not when you get home. If it's been sitting out longer than two hours in total, the safe answer is to eat it now or not at all.

Three days in the fridge. Two for rice and pasta.

Reheat to steaming hot — at least 60°C all the way through. Not warm. Hot enough that you'd blow on it.

Once only. Take out the portion you're eating and leave the rest cold. Reheating the whole container every night is how a good box turns into a bad week.

Some buffet food can't safely go in a box at all, which is why venues on Heaped exclude seafood, raw items and anything from the cold bar as a rule. The reasoning behind that is in Can you take food home from a buffet?

Questions people ask

What foods reheat the best?

Anything slow-cooked and saucy — curries, dhal, chilli, braises, bolognese. They were built to sit, and most are better the next day than they were fresh.

What shouldn't you reheat?

Anything that depends on being crisp. Crumbed and battered food, chips, pastry and crackling all come back soft. Steamed greens go limp and grey.

How do you stop reheated food going soggy?

Keep wet and dry apart in the box, and use an oven, grill or air fryer rather than a microwave for anything that was crisp. Microwaves steam food, which is exactly the wrong thing for a coating.

Can you reheat food twice?

No. Take out the portion you're eating and leave the rest cold. This matters most with rice.

How long can you keep leftovers in the fridge?

Three days for most things, two for rice and pasta, and into the fridge within two hours of packing.

Is it safe to reheat rice?

Yes, once, if it went into the fridge quickly and you eat it within two days. The risk with rice isn't the reheating, it's the hours it spent at room temperature beforehand.

Is a curry really better the next day?

Yes, and it isn't folklore — slow-cooked dishes keep developing as the starches and spices settle. It's the one category where leftovers beat the original.

Heaped is a Sydney marketplace for surplus buffet food. Venues switch boxes on when there's food left near the end of service; you reserve one, walk in, pay in the app and pack your own container.

Launching in Sydney soon