Every Cook’s First Skill: Mis en Place

MIS EN PLACE
The term used in professional kitchens to describe the discipline, organization and arrangement of the work space, ingredients, equipment – even the cook’s mind –  BEFORE beginning to cook. It translates directly from French, ”everything in its place”.

In professional kitchens and among culinary students, mise en place (or mise for short) is essential. The term is used widely, sometimes as a verb (“I’m mis en placing this recipe”) and sometimes as a noun (“Finish your mis en place for tomorrow’s recipe before you go”). Regardless of how it is used, mis en place is a catch-all term for everything a cook does to prepare for service. 

For the beginning cook, Mis en Place is nothing more than getting ready to cook.

Mise en place solves the two basic problems facing the professional chef:

• Problem #1: There is too much work to do in a kitchen to leave everything until the last minute. Some work must be done ahead of time. Therefore, you’ve got to plan and prepare as much as possible before service to ensure it runs smoothly.
• Problem #2: Most food items are at their best quality immediately after preparation. They deteriorate as they are held and as they begin to lose their nutritional value. Food items need to be made at a proper time to ensure that quality levels are maintained .

There is only one way to solve these problems- plan ahead. 

It would be impossible for professional chefs and line cooks to prepare meals as quickly as they do without  spending hours making sure every sauce is in a squeeze bottle, each vegetable is diced and ready to go, that proteins are thawed and trimmed, that bowls, tools, pans are clean, that knives are sharpened and at the ready, that the oven is hot. When you only have MINUTES to complete a dish, having everything ready to make that dish happen is essential.

While most hourly line cooks usually make just one part of a dish at a time, over and over, many trained cooks must make multiple dishes at the SAME time. When you have to complete multiple recipes at the same time, you aren’t just mis en placing ONE recipe, you are organizing ALL the things you are cooking. 

This is considerably more challenging than cooking a single dish!  Possessing the ability to organize and execute multi-recipe dishes that have to be served at a specific time is one of the marks of a trained cook. It’s all about getting organized for optimal production and efficiency.  

All of this organization results in PREP LISTS, checklists of things that need to be completed prior to service. Chop onions? Check. Trim pork belly? Check. List of tools to be collected? Check.

Organization and Checklists take the stress out of complicated cooking. Here’s an overview of the process:

1. BRAIN: Study the recipe to be prepared
2. TIME: Write a timeline showing what activities should be done in what order. Make sure to note all steps, including washing vegetables or even prepping certain food items the night before.
3. TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT: Identify each piece of equipment needed to prepare, finish, and hold each menu item for service. Do this the night before when possible.
4. INGREDIENTS: Perform as much advance preparation as possible without diminishing food quality. As each item is finished, label and store it appropriately to prevent time-temperature abuse, nutrient loss, and moisture loss.
5. WORKSPACE: Think through how you will assemble your workstation (cutting board, containers, etc.), tools, and ingredients. Once service begins, balance the need to work quickly with the need to keep your station clean.
6. AFTERWARDS: After service, clean the station and store any leftover food as quickly as possible, observing food safety rules. Consider what went well during preparation and service. What could have been done better? How could the work have been streamlined?

Those are the basics. Here’s how you do it.

ORGANIZE YOUR BRAIN

Read the whole recipe, dang it. The whole thing. Seriously.

Beginning the cooking process without carefully reading the recipe leaves room for surprises, which WILL slow you down in the kitchen. Read the entire recipe as you plan. That way, you’ll know which ingredients to group together and which to keep separate, whether your ingredients should be room temperature or chilled, and what you CAN prep ahead of time versus what you MUST chop at the last minute. AGAIN… a good cook needs to almost MEMORIZE each recipe they are making in order to pull off a multi-course meal.

When it is time to cook, arrive early, with a professional attitude, properly attired and ready to cook. This will eliminate lots of confusion and uncertainty. We have all arrived somewhere and weren’t sure what was going on. It can take many long minutes to “get into the swing of things.” Don’t short-circuit your success or enter a kitchen with a lazy brain. Mis en Place your thinking FIRST, then get in there and start mis en placing your food. 

ORGANIZE YOUR TIME

If you are on a tight schedule (and what chef isn’t on a tight schedule??), you’ll have to work backwards from WHEN you will need to serve the food, piping hot and steaming, to the first minute you can BEGIN cooking. This is especially true when making a few different things – like side dishes, sauces, and appetizers. This will feel like homework. You will want to skip it. This is a mistake that will lead to disaster.

Make a list of everything you’re cooking and jot down how much time each dish should take to prepare. Decide what time you want to serve and then work backwards from there to determine what time you’ll need to start each dish. Recipes that take the longest should be started first, and less time-intensive recipes can be started closer to service so that everything is ready all at once.

If a recipe has a few different components – like searing, sautéing, and braising – break down the recipe even further and write out the estimated time each STEP of the recipe will take so that you can plan accordingly.

If you need to prep last-minute ingredients like minced herbs or fresh fruit, be sure to account for that time as you work backwards. If you’re making a dish that needs 30 minutes to cook, you can use that time to prep or you can use that time to wash dishes and clean your workspace – but cook time is valuable! Make a plan to use every minute!

There are tons of variations and every recipe is different. This is why it is so vital to STUDY the recipe.

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS WHILE MIS EN PLACING: For each question, write a TIME.

• When are you serving? This is your absolute, the-food-has-to-be-done, no excuses, deadline.
• How long are you giving yourself to arrange everything on the plate?
• How long does the last step take? The step before that? (etc, etc)
• What items have to come out of the fridge or freezer right away? What has to be kept cold or frozen till it is cooked?
• When can you begin?

ORGANIZE YOUR TOOLS AND YOUR EQUIPMENT

Make a list of every tool you need to get. Inexperienced cooks waste ENORMOUS, UNGODLY amounts of time running back and forth, looking for the 1/2 cup measure they forgot, a second spatula they didn’t realize they would need, the fish cutting board for the raw Tilapia. Inexperienced cooks are SURE they will remember what they need and end up taking twice as long to complete a task as the cook who is working more carefully and using a list to prepare.

FOLLOW THESE TIPS: 

• Read through the entire recipe and identify EVERY SINGLE tool you will need to PREP your ingredients.  Make a checklist.
• Read through the entire recipe and identify EVERY SINGLE tool you will need to COOK. Make a second list.
• Don’t forget to add those extra tools that are part of cooking but not included in the recipe: tasting spoons, paper towels for wiping plates, sanitation buckets, hot pads, dry washcloths, aprons, etc.

ORGANIZE YOUR INGREDIENTS

Many culinary students begin mis en placing by fetching ingredients willy-nilly, putting everything they need into lots and lots of different containers, squeezing all the plastic tubs onto a tray, and when it’s time to cook, searching for what they need. They read the ingredient list without studying the instructions, so don’t notice that the butter is melted RIGHT before it is added, so they microwave it, only to put the container in the refrigerator where it promptly turns solid again.

This will make you crazy.

FOLLOW THESE TIPS:

• Prep like things together: if a recipe calls for chopping onions, carrots, and celery, prep a cut station, wash all the vegetables together, trim all the waste at the same time, then chop everything at the same time. Doing one vegetable at a time is wasteful and slows you down.
• Use the smallest disposable styrofoam or plastic container POSSIBLE for each item. If the ingredients doesn’t fill the container, GET A SMALLER CONTAINER.
• Only label those things which might be confused with something else. A whole egg, unpeeled garlic clove, a lemon or an apple doesn’t need to be labeled (and none need a lid). Don’t waste your time doing something unnecessary.
• Whenever possible, use ramekins or small bowls for holding small ingredients, like chopped garlic or spices.
• Whenever possible, combine ingredients. If you are asked to chop garlic, celery, carrots, and onions and sauté them all at the same time, they don’t need separate containers!
• When it’s time to cook, unwrap, uncover, and lineup all your ingredients in the order you need them, preferably on a half sheet to allow you to keep your work surface clean.

ORGANIZE YOUR WORK SPACE

You would be amazed how more difficult it can be to make a complicated meal when a work space is messy and disorganized. This is especially important for professional cooks, who are constantly on the lookout for the possibility of cross-contamination and making unsafe food. 

FOLLOW THESE TIPS

• Have the tools out that you need and a bus tub to put them in when you are finished. 
• Take all the lids off the ingredients you will be using and line them up in the order they will be added to the dish.
• NEVER let trash accumulate on your work surface! NEVER.
• NEVER let dirty dishes start stacking up. Place them in a bus tub out of the way and wash them as soon as you have time. DIRTY DISHES ARE A TIME-KILLER.
• WIPE COUNTERS, OVENS, AND SINKS AS YOU GO. The last few minutes should be devoted to prepping you plate, not stressing over a dirty bowl you used twenty minutes earlier.

Through the entire process, remember that cooking, like anything, takes practice. The more you do it, the better (and faster) you’ll get – so keep going, even if your timing isn’t perfect on the very first try! 

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LAST NOTE: GET USED TO IMPROVISING

There is never enough time, space, or equipment to do an optimal job. It is important for a cook to understand this and to find the best medium where they can produce a great product given the situation at hand. Improvising happens in multiple ways and must be addressed by thinking on your feet.

• A food product you ordered wasn’t available and you must substitute at the last minute with another ingredient
• A sauce breaks or an entrée gets burned and must be re-fired
• You’ve forgot to set up a hot food holding space and improvise with a warm oven
• A member of your team left out the eggs and you have to remake a custard
• An oven stops working in the middle of service and you must finish cooking items in the convection oven
• The person assigned to washing dishes doesn’t come to school and everyone else has to fill in while they cook

Every situation is different and must be addressed with a clear head in a calm and methodical manner. Losing your cool, whining or getting angry will never help the situation but only prolong the problem.

Don’t do that.