Cooking Basics: Mise en Place
I did once spend time in a restautant kitchen as a liaison between the kitchen and the catering office, where I mostly discussed menus and schedules.
But one thing I learned being in a professional kitchen was the concept of Mise En Place.
Mise En Place is a French culinary term that means "putting in place." Basically, it is the concept that when you are prepping to cook, you need to put everything in its place.
The most important lesson you can learn about how to cook is that you need to prep your ingredients and have them ready to use before you even start the cooking process. If everything is at your fingertips and ready to go, you will be able to move through the cooking of the meal without a hitch.
Before you begin a recipe, go through the ingredients and make sure you have everything. If any of the ingredients need to be pre-cooked or toasted, do that. Group the ingredients together that will be used together. If you have mini bowls (inexpensive metal condiment cups work well for this), measure out teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients so they can be added without stopping to measure.
Also, if you set up your ingredients before you start to cook, you will be able to do a last minute check to be sure you have everything you need.There's nothing worse than discovering you're missing an ingredient after you've started cooking.
When you do mise en place, you can do all those little things like toasting nuts...and allowing them to return to room temperature before you start rather than trying to do two things at once. Even if you are good at multi-tasking, why create a stressful situation?
Mise en place makes it easier to clean up as you go. I never want to wash a whole meal's worth of dishes at the end. It is so much easier to clean as you go. If all the ingredients are laid out ahead, you have time to wash and wipe down while you are still cooking.
Cooking should be enjoyable. If you are juggling ingredients and processes, you are bound to get stressed. There is no need for that. All you have to do is be prepared.
