The Importance of Mise en Place

056ac6d7151aa4625ba9f763235437ae_520x500

Needless to say, cooking in a professional kitchen is very different from making meals at home. The restaurant is a marathon of prepping ingredients, putting together dishes, and keeping your station precisely organized. The happiness of your guests and the success of the restaurant depend on the kitchen operating as a synchronized and well-oiled machine. In order to create a successful kitchen, chefs prepare their stations with mise en place.

This French phrase translates to “everything in its place”. It’s the preparation of food and equipment before you begin cooking. For example, you might clean and dice your tomatoes, measure out your dry ingredients, or whip your eggs. You’ll also want to make sure that you have all of your equipment and tools on hand and ready to use. With the help of these handy preparations, when the time comes to combine the ingredients on the stove or assemble the final dish, you aren’t scrambling to dice your onions or chop your parsley.

Making every cooking step as efficient as possible is what adds to the success of a well-made meal. While the household dynamic is different than a professional kitchen, these same organizational skills can also greatly improve your home cooking experience. Our culinary director, Chef Philip Tessier, explains, “Mise en place, literally ‘everything in place’, is one of the fundamental pillars of the professional kitchen and one of the most overlooked steps to chaos-free cooking.

Yes, the kids are starving, the guests are on their way, but taking a few minutes to prep and organize those first few ingredients before turning on the stove can take your stress level down from a 10 to at least a 5. We’ve built the Cue recipes with this approach and it’s amazing to see home cooks go from fear to fun in just one recipe!” After all, time and space saved means more time to enjoy with your friends and family at the table.

Share

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest