[2022-07-16] Mise en place

Tonight, I made a new family favourite for the second time: Creamy Vegan Pink Pasta. I usually find it easier to make a dish the second time around, as I'm familiar with the recipe and how it comes together. But tonight, I was a little more frazzled than I had felt two weeks ago when making this dish for the first time.

Later, I remembered why my first time preparing this dish felt less stressful: I had used the mise en place method. As explained in Use "Mise en Place" to Make Meal Preparation Easier, "Mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French term for having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before you start cooking. Pans are prepared. Mixing bowls, tools and equipment set out. It is a technique chefs use to assemble meals so quickly and effortlessly." This corroborated my experience.

I didn't grow up using the mise en place approach, and I didn't learn it that summer in 1982 when I worked as a short-order cook in a restaurant. In fact, I've rarely used the strategy in the more than 40 years I've been cooking and baking. That's because I always believed that the routine of prepping and cooking simultaneously was more efficient than the tactic of prepping and cooking sequentially. After all, professional cooks like Rachel Ray and James Barber followed the prep-as-you-cook approach, and turned out seemingly amazing dishes in 30 minutes. However, I have found that while it may take me less time overall to prepare a meal using this model, it often leaves me feeling more harried and the kitchen in a greater state of disarray than when I use the mise en place technique. Inevitably, something should be going in the pot before I have it ready to throw in.

In recent weeks—when I've remembered it and when I've decided in advance what I'm making for supper—I've been using the mise en place method, which I find more enjoyable than when I try to cook while concurrently finding, chopping and measuring ingredients. The article Use "Mise en Place" to Make Meal Preparation Easier explains why that is:
  • Any missing ingredients can be spotted before it's too late for a quick trip to the store or your neighbor next door.
  • Special preparation for ingredients—such as toasting nuts, letting certain ingredients come to room temperature, etc.— can be handled BEFORE cooking rather than in the midst of another preparation step when time delays may affect food quality.
  • There is time to clean the mixing area as you go along rather than face a counter full of mixing equipment when you're done.
  • You can group ingredients or place them in the order used to assure all recipe steps are included.
  • It makes complicated recipes more fun to prepare when you're no longer doing a juggling act, trying to complete several tasks simultaneously.
The article suggests having an assortment of mini bowls to hold all your prepped ingredients.

All of this reminds me of the excellent advice of A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories: "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."