mise en place

Getting Ready to Cook

what is mise en place?

Mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French term for having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before you start cooking. Pans are prepared. Mixing bowls, tools and equipment set out.

In the late 1800s, professional chefs adopted a now revered method of preparation known as mise en place, or ‘set in place’. Mise en place maximizes efficiency and reduces errors. This approach is taught in every culinary school, and the average cooking class, around the world.

5 steps to mise en place

There are 5 steps to mise en place:

Know your recipe — necessary ingredients, cookware, and baking times
Prepare your ingredients — clean, chop, mince… whatever is required
Arrange your ingredients — appropriate size bowls, positioned logically
Prepare your workstation — set the oven temperature, clean the utensils
Arrange your tools — similar logic applied to cookware and necessary equipment

In a restaurant, cooks are assigned to various stations, each with its own specific function. A line cook may spend their whole shift sautéing vegetables, or grilling steaks, or making salads, over and over again. Each cook is focused on one component of a given dish, not the whole thing.

As such, their focus is laser sharp. For them, mise en place is about setting up their station, ensuring all the ingredients and tools they need are within easy reach, to minimize wasted movement and extra steps. Containers of chopped herbs, diced onions, minced garlic, squeeze bottles of oil, not to mention tongs, spatulas, whisks and spoons, are all laid out within easy reach.

the kitchen brigade system

In a restaurant, the kitchen staff is organized into what's called a "brigade," and the military connotation is intentional. Because restaurant cooks love to imagine that they're going into battle every night.

Beyond the specialization of tasks, restaurant kitchens also have people called porters, who swoop in and gather up used mixing bowls, dirty pans and so on and take them way, so that the cook's station stays tidy. And then there are dishwashers, whose job is to wash all those dirty pots, pans and utensils.

the prep cook

Moreover, restaurants also have prep cooks, whose job it is to do all the peeling, trimming, slicing, mincing, chopping and whatever other work is required to make the various ingredients in a dish ready to go into the dish.

The actual cook doesn't need to shop for ingredients, read a recipe, or even plan the menu. All they have to do is stand there and cook the food. And get this: There's a whole bunch of separate people whose job is just making dessert! Compared with what you have to do to prepare a meal at home, cooking in a restaurant is a downright breeze.

Not surprisingly, mise en place means something quite different for someone like that than it does for a home cook.

the home cook

For a home cook, mise en place is about saving time, yes, but the end goal is so that you can finish the cooking and sit down and enjoy the meal. You're not going into "battle."

And while it does make sense for a restaurant cook to have all their tools, ingredients and utensils within reach at all times, it's not because that necessarily makes you a better cook. It's because restaurant kitchens are tiny, cramped spaces, where cooks work shoulder to shoulder with each other, and there's simply no way all those people can be wandering around the kitchen grabbing things. Not to mention, they're in the kitchen for eight hours. So if their squeeze bottle of chili oil is located three steps away, that means three steps over and three steps back, over and over. That's a lot of steps over an eight hour shift.

“There’s a bond among a kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.”----Gordon Ramsay

mise en place videos

How a Master Chef Built One of the Country's Best Restaurants In Elk, California — Mise En Place

At two-Michelin-starred restaurant Harbor House in Elk, California, chef Matthew Kammerer sources fresh ingredients from within 20 miles to create dishes like a 60-day-aged pork shoulder, barbecued kohlrabi, Devil’s Gulch squab, and more.

How Master Chef Kyle Connaughton Runs a 3 Michelin Star Restaurant in Wine Country — Mise en Place

Three-Michelin-starred California Wine Country destination SingleThread is known for making intricate dishes using produce from their farm that gets picked the morning that the kitchen prepares it. With his team, chef Kyle Connaughton curates a tasting menu that includes mushi nabe black cod, anago shime, Duclair duck, and more.

Learn to Cook Like a Pro: The Art of Mise en Place

At ChefSteps, we don't tell you how to cook, we show you—with recipes designed to inspire and educate, tested techniques for successful results at home, and a lively forum where you'll chat with other chefs and home-cooking enthusiasts.

How a Master Chef Runs the Only Two Michelin-Starred Mexican Restaurant in America — Mise En Place

At two-Michelin-starred Californios in San Francisco, chef and owner Val Cantu aims to honor and preserve the ingredients and cooking techniques of Mexico. He and his team of star chefs develop their own creative takes on traditional flavors with dishes like squab arabe tacos, puffed black masa topped with sea urchin, grilled banana in savory dulce de leche sauce served with a dollop of caviar, and more.

"Mise en place is the religion of all good line cooks....As a cook, your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an extension of your nervous system." ----anthony bourdain

in conclusion

‘Mise en place’ is a French phrase that means “everything in its place.” It refers to the setup required before cooking: chopping all the vegetables, measuring out all the spices, preparing the cuts of meat or any other ingredient needed for the dish. It means all of the necessary utensils are ready, the pots and pans are out, and the oven is preheated. For the chef, mise en place is all about being prepared. Having ‘everything in its place’ helps ensures that when the cooking begins there are fewer errors, interruptions, forgotten ingredients or time wasted.

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