I hope you don’t ever have to cook dinner for 3000 people but they do it every day on a cruise ship. Cruise ship kitchens serve 3 meals a day plus snacks to 3000+ people day in and day out. How do they do it? Organization. Whether you’re cooking for 2, 12, or 20 you must be organized and have all your pieces in place before beginning to cook.
The phrase is Mise en Place [MEEZ ahn plahs] is a French term meaning to have all the ingredients necessary for a recipe to be prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking. And having all the preliminary steps required for that recipe ahead of time. As a chef I’ve considered this the work before the work.
So how do you get your Mise en Place? Start by reading your recipe, twice. Or, if you’re not using a recipe then go through the mental steps of preparing the recipe. If your cooking a meat, veg, starch, salad, dessert then you need to read all the recipes and go over all the steps. Then devise a time line. Can you make anything ahead and hold it like toss the salad and put it in the fridge then at the last minute before service you can add the salad dressing. Or blanch the vegetables. What takes longest to cook and what can be done last minute. The next step is to gather all your ingredients and prepare them. Chop onions, season meats, measure out wet ingredients, etc.
Now you have all your ingredients in order, pre chopped, pre measured, pre seasoned, you’re ready to cook. Read your recipe one more time. Then begin. Before you know it, you’ll be done and have a fabulous meal to serve. From a simple sauté dish to a complicated braising dish; if you have all your ingredients in order and ready to go you’ll find the experience enjoyable and stress free.
