Output Only Entries from Entry Field Related to a Category

Question

I have a section called "lunchMenu" that contains an entries field ("menuItems"). Each entry in "menuItems" is related to a category in the category group ("foodCategory"). I would like to loop through each of the entries only in "lunchMenu" and output them within their respective categories.

When I loop through the entries field alone, everything works just fine. However, when I add the relatedTo parameter to sort by category, I get entries that are not present in this section's entry field.

Here's the code I'm using - any help would be appreciated. I think I'm not understanding the use of the relatedTo correctly.

{% set food = craft.categories.group('foodCategory') %}
{% set entries = craft.entries.section('lunchMenu') %}

    {% for entry in entries %}
        {% for category in food %}
        {{ category.title }}
            {% for item in entry.menuItems.relatedTo(category) %}
                    {{ item.title }}
            {% endfor %}
    {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}