Vol. IV · Knives, Tools and the Work Space Plate 9 of 10mise en place, preparation, organisation, stir-fry, timing, workflowTF

Mise en Place.

Cut, measure and set out everything first. Then cook. A stir-fry takes four minutes; its preparation takes fifteen, and cannot happen in the middle.

Professional kitchens run on mise en place, French for "putting in place": before service, every ingredient is cut, measured, and set out in containers within reach, sauces are mixed, pans are ready. When an order comes, the cook only assembles and cooks. At home the same habit matters most for fast cooking. A stir-fry spends four minutes in the wok; if the vegetables are still being cut when the meat is in, the meat overcooks, the wok goes on heating with nothing in it, and the garlic burns while you look for the soy sauce.

The workshop lays out a stir-fry two ways — prepared first, or prepared as you go — on a timeline, and counts the minutes the wok spends hot and empty or food spends waiting in it.

Below: the same stir-fry as a timeline, with mise en place (top) and without (bottom), at the preparation speed you choose.

What you will learn
Workshop
Tasks for one stir-fry (slicing pork, cutting vegetables, mixing the sauce, heating the wok, cooking), laid out with everything prepared first, and with the wok heated first and preparation done between cooking steps. Preparation times scale with your speed.

Prepare, then cook

With everything prepared first, the stir-fry takes 19 minutes and the wok is on the heat for 6 of them. Prepared as you go, it takes 20 minutes, the wok is on the heat for all of them, it sits hot and empty for 6 minutes while the pork is sliced, and the cooked pork waits 5 minutes in it while the vegetables are cut — tough meat, burnt oil and a longer evening.

Mise en place is also a way of reading the recipe once, properly, before you start: every ingredient found, measured and cut; every bowl and spoon to hand; the order of cooking clear. Arrange your station so that things flow in one direction — raw ingredients on one side, the board in the middle, prepared ingredients in the order they go into the pan nearest the stove. Chinese kitchens set out the cut ingredients and the mixed sauce in small dishes beside the wok for exactly this reason.

At the stove

Before your next stir-fry, put every prepared ingredient in its own bowl, in the order it goes in, beside the stove, with the sauce mixed and the serving plate ready. Only then light the burner. Notice how much calmer the four minutes are.

The brigade kitchen Escoffier organised (XXXI.1) depends on mise en place: each station prepares for hours so that, during service, a plate can be assembled in a minute.

Terms

Mise en place
Preparing and arranging all ingredients and tools before cooking begins.
Station
A cook's workspace with its tools and prepared ingredients.
Flow
Arranging work so ingredients move one way, from raw to prepared to the pan.
Pinch bowls
Small dishes holding measured, prepared ingredients.
Prepare everything, then cook. Fast cooking cannot pause for chopping.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.