What is mise en place?
Mise en place is simply the time spent peeling, chopping, making stocks, weighing all the ingredients, etc. to get yourself and nice and prepared for cooking – having everything in its place. Preparation also includes getting all your cooking utensils ready, not forgetting plates, knives, forks, etc. Wikipedia describes it as French phrase meaning ‘putting in place’.
The mise en place is possibly the most important step in cooking your chosen recipe. In professional kitchens, a great deal of time is spent with the mise en place and will allow you to cook in a clean, methodical way.
- It is a good idea to weigh ingredients after you have prepared them to avoid waste
- In many cases, some of the preparation can be done the day before and stored safely in your fridge until required
- You could try to get all your mise en place in small pots on the work surface, very much like an artist’s palette
- If serving hot food, don’t forget to warm the plates
- Once you have chosen your recipe, done your shopping and done as much mise en place as possible, it’s time to cook!
You will find that if you get everything prepared and ready before you cook, it will make everything so much easier. You won’t be running around looking for the wooden spoon at the bottom of the drawer when you should be using it to stir the contents of your saucepan!
Showing you the ‘mise en place’ is something that we are very passionate about and I hope you find it useful. Impress your friends by mentioning mise en place next time you invite them round for a meal or chat – you’ll soon have their attention and hopefully they will then go away and follow your sound cooking advice!
Happy cooking and don’t forget that mise en place!