Chef Secret: Mise en place
Mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French phrase, meaning “everything in its place.” Specifically, when cooking, it means doing a little prep to make the process of cooking flow more smoothly. Unfortunately many of us ignore this basic cooking practice. You know how it is: You grab a recipe, you’re sure you have all the ingredients, you read the first step in the recipe, and you start cooking. Only sometimes you discover you don’t have all the ingredients. Or that you were supposed to have chopped those five onions ahead of time and now the rest of the ingredients are burning on the stove while you try to chop them up at the last minute. Mise en place eliminates these frustrations.Fortunately, practicing mise en place is easy:
1. Begin by reading the recipe through. This step can’t be skipped! You need to know where you’re going before you head off on the trip.
2. Look through the list of ingredients, then check your cupboards and refrigerator to make sure you have every single one of them. And that you have enough of every single one of them.
3. If you don’t have every ingredient called for, now’s the time to consider whether you can eliminate that ingredient without ruining the dish. You can also consider whether you want to use a substitute – and whether you have enough of that substitute on hand.
4. Next, gather every tool you’ll need, from saucepans to whisks. Line them up on the counter.
5. For each ingredient needed for the recipe, wash, chop, dice, grate, or whatever the recipe calls for. Measure and place the ingredients in small bowls. (Prep bowls designed for just this purpose may be purchased from your favorite cooking store. As you fill them, line them up on the counter in the order you’ll use the ingredients.)
6. If pans, baking sheets, or other tools need pre-warming, get them going either now, or while you are prepping ingredients.
Only after you’ve gone through these six steps should you actually begin cooking. This might seem too type A or fussy for you, but trust me. There’s a reason mise en place is one of the first things a chef learns in cooking school. It streamlines the cooking process, saving you time – and making the actual cooking a lot more fun.
