What is Mise en Place?
Needless to say, cooking in a professional kitchen is very different from making meals at home. The restaurant is a marathon of prepping ingredients, putting together dishes, and keeping your station precisely organized. The happiness of your guests and the success of the restaurant depend on the kitchen operating as a synchronized and well-oiled machine. In order to create a successful kitchen, chefs prepare their stations with mise en place.
This French phrase translates to “everything in its place”.
This French phrase translates to “everything in its place”. It’s the preparation of food and equipment before you begin cooking. For example, you might clean and dice your tomatoes, measure out your dry ingredients, or whip your eggs. You’ll also want to make sure that you have all of your equipment and tools on hand and ready to use. With the help of these handy preparations, when the time comes to combine the ingredients on the stove or assemble the final dish, you aren’t scrambling to dice your onions or chop your parsley.
Cut Your Prep Time in Half
According to our culinary director Chef Owen, “Mise en place—literally 'everything in place'— is one of the fundamental pillars of the professional kitchen, and one of the most overlooked steps in chaos-free cooking." While your household dynamic is different from a professional kitchen, these same organizational skills can also greatly improve your home cooking experience.
Mise en Place (often abbreviated MEP) allows you to focus on the actual cooking and ensure there is attention to technique and taste. Taking a few minutes to prep and organize your ingredients and tools before turning on the stove can take your stress level down from a 10 to at least a 5. And just like any skill, the more you ‘practice’ mise en place the faster you’ll become. Making every step in cooking as efficient as possible is what adds to the success of a well-made meal.
How to Mise En Place
First organize your workspace with a cutting board, measuring cups or spoons, a knife and any other tools (like a glass of wine) you’ll need for the recipe.
In the Cue test kitchen our chefs love to use Prepdeck, to stay organized. Modeled after the professional kitchen, Prepdeck includes 15 containers to organize your ingredients and seasonings, 8 prepping tools (think zester, juicer, and more), and even a cutting board. Plus it folds up for easy storage. Use Cue and Prepdeck together to reduce stress and eliminate guesswork when cooking. Prepdeck's organization and Cue's guided recipes and temperature control help you achieve restaurant quality meals every time you step into the kitchen.
Here are our Chefs’ tips for taking your MEP to the next level…
- Prepare compound butters, tomato sauce, stocks and sauces ahead of time in larger batches and freeze for later use.
- Channel your inner Martha Stewart and break out the label maker. You'll thank us later.
- Get the family involved. Family members and young kids make great prep cooks.
- Save time and trips across the kitchen by including a small bin or bag for food waste.
- Clean as you go. Avoid piling everything in the sink so cleaning the kitchen is easy and quick.
MEP will help your overall kitchen management too. Your refrigerator will stay more organized, and you’ll have a better idea of what items you have and what needs to be used first. Plus you’ll reduce your food waste.
Cue is Your Coach in the Kitchen
When you cook with Cue, you'll find all of our step-by-step recipes were built with the 'mise en place' approach. Beginning with the necessary prep steps to ensure all your ingredients are ready before any cooking starts.
All Cue recipes include an equipment list directly below the ingredients on the recipe overview screen.
We've found the video-guidance only our recipes provide is especially important in helping you succeed in the kitchen; and when combined with precision temperature control, guarantees results. As the Cue app guides you through a recipe, it’s also teaching you the tips, techniques, and secret touches that professional chefs use to take their meals from good to great. When you cook with Cue, you’ll learn to think like a chef.
We love to see what you are cooking on Cue. Look for more inspiration and share your recipes or ask our Chefs for advice in our Facebook community.
For more recipe inspiration check out the Cue app, where you can discover over 500 chef-crafted recipes, all with step-by-step video guidance from prep to plating. Download the Hestan Cue app for iOS and Android and learn more about precision cooking with Cue, and all the things you can do!
