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Mise en Place
- Order from Chaos
One of
the fundamentals of cooking is the “Mise en place” (pronounced Meez-ahn-plass)
which literally translates from the French to mean “setting in place”.
The simple gist is “Get yourself organized before you make a real mess
and probably burn dinner”. If you have ever watched a cooking program
on television, you’ve seen the effective use of mise en place. The host,
usually while smiling smugly, will start cooking by adding a tidy little bowl
of chopped shallots here, a neat little bowl of minced herbs there. You think
to yourself, “Wow…. She makes it look easy”. It is!
Preparing
the mise en place ahead of time allows you to cook without having to stop and
hunt for your balsamic vinegar, lemon zester, etc. Often, time is of the essence
and poor planning can result in a culinary disaster. With practice, organizing
your workspace can become like a Zen exercise… Mise en place is not just
a technique, it’s a state of mind. Well, that might be overstating it
a bit, but you get the idea.
Before
starting the actual cooking process, take these simple steps:
- Review
the recipe (twice)
- Check
for all the necessary ingredients
- Check
for all the necessary equipment (utensils and appliances)
- Ingredients
are measured out, washed, chopped and placed in individual bowls (I bought
a stack of small, clear glass bowls from my local dollar store)
- Oven/grill
is preheated
Try this
method next time you cook. It might seem like a little extra work at the time,
but the process will be so much more enjoyable, you’ll wonder why you
didn’t do it sooner.
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