Mise en place is a French phrase that means “put in place.” It’s a term used in professional kitchens to describe organizational techniques that Chefs use.
In professional kitchens, organization and preparedness are the two most important factors in efficiency. An efficient restaurant kitchen can make the difference in customer satisfaction.
In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of having everything mise en place before the shift begins, so that the cooking process is streamlined no matter how busy the restaurant gets.
Why Is Mise en Place Important?
As already mentioned, mise en place is important in order to ensure you have everything you need before you start cooking. Restaurant Chefs need to practice mise en place if they want dinner service to go as smoothly as possible.
To do that, they need to know what their tasks are in advance and set everything up so that when they need it, it will be there. This can include mixing bowls before hand, washing fruits, toasting nuts, preparing ingredients and having all the necessary ingredients and utensils washed and within reach of their cooking station.
All of these things will ultimately save time when they need to actually start cooking. Once they start cooking, they can focus on the recipe rather than whether or not they have all the ingredients needed to cook the dish.
How To Practice Mise en Place
No matter whether you’re a professional Chef or you’re aspiring to work in a restaurant kitchen, practicing mise en place will go a long way in your professional career.
That being said, here are the general steps to practicing mise en place. Keep in mind that established kitchens have their own methods of preparation, which can differ from the steps that we discuss here.
Know your recipe ahead of time
The key to preparation is knowing what you’ll be cooking. Whether it’s at the start of the day or just before you start cooking something, make sure you know what ingredients the recipe requires. In restaurants, there’s an entire menu to plan for.
If you’ve already worked in the restaurant for a while, you should have a general idea of what sells and how much of it sells. This piece of information can help you prepare accordingly.
Make a checklist
To make sure you aren’t missing ingredients when you start cooking, it’s best to make a checklist of everything you need and go through it. This can help you better organize before you start cooking, so once you start cooking you can shift your focus towards making the recipe.
Do all the prep work
Once you know you have everything you need, you can start prepping ingredients ahead of time. This will streamline the entire cooking process for you.
You can get the cutting board and chop all the vegetables and fruits you need for the dishes, trim the meat and grind spices. Then, you can pre-measure ingredients like eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and butter so you have just enough of them for a single or multiple dishes.
Lastly, you can place all your ingredients in small bowls to make them easy to reach and use. You can organize the bowls so that the ones you need most are closer to you and the ones you need least are furthest away.
Clean as you go
A clean work station is an organized and efficient work station. This step is pretty self-explanatory. Once you’re done with a dish, clean your workspace so that you’re instantly prepared for the next task.
Take the dirty dishes to the dishwasher and wipe down dirty stains from utensils and spots to prevent cross-contamination.
Why Do Professional Chefs Use Mise en Place?
Working in a professional kitchen can be hectic. Professional Chefs use mise en place to reduce the chaos and any unexpected roadblocks.
It also allows them to get done with the preparation part of cooking and only focus on cooking the dish.
The whole concept comes from the kitchen brigade system created by Georges Auguste Escoffier. He was a legendary French Chef who changed the way kitchens operate.
His system made it so that every person in the kitchen had a role that they had to fulfill to ensure everything runs smoothly. To do that, there had to be a ranking system, just like in the military. The highest rank in the kitchen was the Chef de Cuisine, followed by Sous Chef, then the Station Chef, and lastly, Commis Chefs.
