Mise En Place to Save Time and Stress

When you get ready to cook dinner, do you “mise en place”? This is a French culinary phrase that essentially means “putting in place, or to “gather”. What it means in relation to cooking is getting all your ingredients chopped, measured, and ready to go before you ever turn on the stovetop or oven. This cooking technique makes a world of difference when it comes to making dinner easy.

Here’s a common scenario that might sound familiar to you. Let’s say you have just started cooking after a busy day. You see your first step in your meal is to saute some garlic for 1 to 2 minutes in your skillet. You chop the garlic, heat the oil in the pan, and in it goes. The next step is to add a tsp of two different spices, along with a cup of chicken broth. Now, your garlic is still cooking away with about a minute to go, and you are rummaging through your spices to find the ones you need, followed by looking for your measuring spoons (“darn, they are in the dishwasher”). Now you need a minute or two to wash them. You haven’t even got to measuring the broth, but by now, your garlic is turning dark brown and is on the way to being burnt.

Meanwhile, you are most likely not finding this a relaxing or enjoyable way to prepare dinner … I feel stressed just writing this out!

Why Mise En Place Makes Cooking Easier:

Picture this: you have all your ingredients chopped, measured, and lined up neatly before you start cooking. No more scrambling to chop a veggie while the chicken is getting overcooked, or you are looking for a large stirring spoon, or scrambling to find the right spices. Your meal comes together beautifully and tastes just as you expected.

Incorporating mise en place into your daily cooking organization saves time but also makes cooking more relaxing and enjoyable.

I first discovered this simple technique when I took some culinary classes in Boston. After we were given our assignment at the start of class, we went to our stations. The chef would then walk around and check each student’s mise en place. We were not allowed to start cooking until he confirmed it was set up correctly. This included fully prepped ingredients and the necessary equipment such as the pans, knives, measuring tools, etc.

The reason this is a fundamental cooking technique in culinary classes is this: when you do your mise en place before you start cooking, you set yourself up for success. In a busy restaurant kitchen, this is critical. In your home kitchen, you might not get fired, but you might find cooking more stressful than it needs to be. You also might not always have the best end results.

How to Get Started:

Spending a few minutes before you start cooking to get this in place will reduce stress and increase the likelihood that you will be happy with the meal. And if you don’t enjoy cooking now, it might just be the thing that changes that for you!

Step 1: Read Over the Recipe:

Take a quick read through the entire recipe from beginning to end and note what you will need. This will also help you anticipate the steps involved while you are cooking.

Step 2: Gather Your Ingredients and Tools/Pans:

Gather all the ingredients you will need for the recipe (veggies, main proteins, pantry items, spices, etc.). I usually put everything on my island right next to my stovetop.

This step also includes finding the necessary pans (skillet, saucepan, 13 x 9 dishes, etc.), measuring spoons, cutting boards, knives, etc. Place the skillet or saucepans on the stovetop and have any needed stirring spoons/utensils nearby. No matter what you need, you want to make sure all these tools are in reach and ready to go. Hunting through your utensil draw or dishwasher once the cooking has started is not what you want to be doing.

3. Prep the Ingredients:

Chop, slice, and measure all the ingredients you will need. Follow the recipe’s ingredient listing and make sure each ingredient has been accounted for. Place each ingredient in small bowls (I use Pyrex clear glass bowls) so it is ready to go when you need it. Depending on how many ingredients you are prepping, you could also just separate them on a cutting board.

Line them up, ideally in the order of use, next to your stovetop. You don’t want to be moving back and forth during cooking.

4. Start Cooking!

Now that your mise en place is ready to go, and you have your pans and all tools at the ready, let the cooking begin! Your prep set you up for success, and you should now find the whole cooking process so much easier. You might even start to feel like a professional cook based on how smoothly everything will go!

As You Get Started with Mise En Place:

I am confident once you start setting up your mise en place when it’s time to cook, you won’t want to cook without it. However, it might take some time to make this a habit and a regular part of your cooking routine. To set yourself up for success, there are a few quick things you can do beforehand:

Organize your spice cupboard and pantry so things you commonly use in weeknight cooking are easily found. Broths, diced tomatoes, beans, pasta etc. Having all these items in one space will make prepping your mise en place even easier. You might even consider getting a spice organizer to place in your drawer or cupboard to make searching for spices faster.
Take stock of what you might have or need to place prepped ingredients in. Even though I use small Pyrex dishes for my prepped ingredients, you can use anything that works. The point is to make sure you have 6 to 8 dishes that will work for this purpose and keep them together.
Check to see if you need to replace any measuring spoons, cutting boards, or other commonly used cooking items.

You might not need to do all or any of these steps above, but it is worth reviewing the list so you are set up for success.

So next time you cook dinner, try doing mise en place. Once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever cooked without it!