Defaulting Optional orElse with Optional.empty in Java 8

Combine both the list using Stream.of and check for element or return Optional.empty()

Stream.of(lunches, dinners)
      .flatMap(List::stream)
      .filter(s -> s.getName()
                    .equalsIgnoreCase(name))
      .findFirst();

As per the suggestion from @Holger you can also use Stream.concat to concat two streams and then check for element

Stream.concat(lunches.stream(), dinners.stream())
      .filter(s -> s.getName()
                    .equalsIgnoreCase(name))
      .findFirst();

You can do like this too:

 Optional<Food> firstTry = lunches.stream()
                                  .filter(f -> f.getName().equalsIgnoreCase(name))
                                  .findFirst();
 return firstTry.map(Optional::of)
                .orElse(dinners.stream()
                        .filter(f -> f.getName().equalsIgnoreCase(name)).findFirst());

Or in Java9

firstTry.or(() -> dinners.stream().filter(s -> s.equalsIgnoreCase(name)).findFirst());

---

As @Slaw commented correctly use of orElseGet() avoid eagerly computing.

Optional<Food> firstTry = lunches.stream().filter(...)...findFirst();
Supplier<Optional<Food>> secondTry = () -> dinners.stream()...findFirst();

and at the end

return firstTry.map(Optional::of).orElseGet(secondTry);