Think Like a Chef: How Adopting ‘Mise en Place’ Makes Meal Prep Easier
Written by TJ O’Brien
In my time as a line cook in some of the most esteemed and intense kitchens in the world, I witnessed some serious feats of mental fortitude, concentration and focus – all with much admiration. How someone could work for fourteen hours straight – constantly making split judgement calls and using techniques that required fine motor skills and practice – all while getting yelled at to move faster, was beyond my comprehension.
What I took away from my own experience as a line cook was more than a lesson in how to broil and bake – it was a way of thinking. I learned how to slow down to speed up, how to organize my station physically, so that I could stay at peace mentally. I learned the important work philosophy behind all kitchens: “mise en place.”
“Mise en place“ is French for, “everything in place.” Adopt a “mise en place” mindset and you’ll be more organized, efficient, and if we’re talking cooks and kitchens, get yelled at a lot less. But what does this have to do with you, prospective reader? Just as, according to the principles of CrossFit, the needs of grandmother and Games Athlete “differ in degree and not kind”, so too should you look to the top of the food chain to learn how you might adopt the principles of the elite to improve your everyday game in the kitchen. Those who do will be able to more easily navigate their work in the kitchen, and therefore lower the barrier of entry to preparing their own food.
“Mise en place” can be broken down into a few principles:
1) Slow down to speed up.
Ever get halfway through a recipe and realize you don’t have enough lemons or enough space in the oven for three sheet trays? Slow down and take a chance to look at your gameplan. Literally visualize how you’ll complete each step before opening the fridge or turning on the oven. Two minutes up front can save you 20 down the road.
2) “Set yourself up for success.”
This was a mantra I heard constantly as a cook. You’d have a perfectly cooked steak ready to plate and there wouldn’t be a hot plate ready in the oven. Now you’re waiting for the plate to warm up, twiddling your thumbs when you could be moving on to the next task.
After visualizing how your meal prep will go, take everything out and put it on the counter. Set up your cutting board just the way you like it. Put your music or podcast on, take out your pans, and line your sheet trays. Your future self will love it when you don’t get bogged down by making multiple trips to the fridge or pantry. You’ll be able to enter a flow state of sorts. Which brings me to my next point. Flow on the cutting board through the…
3) Use the “three container system”.
Work with each container directly in front of your board or as close as possible. One for raw ingredients, one for trim or garbage and one for finished ingredients. In a professional kitchen, we worry more about container the “raw ingredients” container than you’ll have to at home (cross contamination). But having a place to put your garbage – a place that is no more than a foot away from you – and a place to put your finished product, will keep you sane. Don’t let your cutting board fill with chopped peppers that have no place to go – you’ll run out of space, they’ll fall off the board, it will be a messy physically and therefore messy mentally. And in order to stay focused on the task at hand, as much as possible…
4) Group all repeatable steps together.
If you have three bell peppers to dice, don’t complete the four steps of pepper dicing with one pepper, and then move on to the next. Instead, complete the first step with all four peppers, followed by the second, etc. This is a small example and it might seem too fastidious for a home cook (“what is this gonna save me, 45 seconds?!”), but look at this principle and apply it broadly. When you go to the fridge, begin to ask yourself if there is anything else you need to put away or take out while you’re there. You’ll begin to do the dishes and ask if there is anything else you can wash or better—if you can’t just wait to do more dishes altogether. Speaking of dishes…
5) “Work clean”.
This is the other nugget of advice I heard over and over again (quite loudly at times). At home, you can adopt two important “work clean” habits. The first is to tuck a hand towel in your belt loop or throw it over your shoulder. Another is to spray off your dishes each time you bring them to the sink. You’ll find that physical cleanliness and mental clarity become one in the same in the kitchen.
“Mise en place” is more than a regimen, more than a system of organizing. It is a ritual that you can adopt, a headspace that you enter such that you can work uninterrupted for long periods of time. The principles of “the meez” presented here will ideally lower the barrier of entry for food prep, save you time, and improve the quality of your meal. Keep in mind that when aiming to improve your performance in any discipline, an incrementalist approach – anything is better than nothing – is important to adopt. Maybe just start with one habit from this list that you’d like to implement and go from there. Before you know it, you’ll be using “mise en place” on everything from your work desk to your makeup bag.
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