I used to think mise en place was just for TV chefs. Now I get it.

For years I thought mise en place was some fancy thing that just looked good on cooking shows. I figured real cooks in a busy kitchen could just grab stuff as they went. Then I picked up a Friday night shift at a place near downtown Portland. We had 86 covers in the first hour and I spent half my time hunting for shallots or a clean pan. The sous chef pulled me aside and said 'you're reacting instead of prepping.' That clicked. Now I set up my station with everything measured and portioned before service starts. My ticket times dropped by about 20 percent and I'm way less stressed. Has anyone else found a specific prep routine that saved them during a rush?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hayden2d ago

Totally agree once you see the difference it's hard to go back. I started doing a "first hour" setup where I just grab every ingredient I might need for the next round of tickets and it saves me so many trips to the walk in.

ellis.mia2d ago

lmao that's such a good way to put it. it's wild how that same "reacting instead of prepping" thing shows up everywhere once you notice it. like with homework, i used to just start writing and figure out the structure as i went, but now i spend ten minutes outlining and it saves me an hour of rewriting crap later. even with packing for a trip, i used to throw stuff in a bag the night before and forget half my chargers. now i lay everything out on the bed a day ahead and suddenly i'm not scrambling at the airport. it's like the universe just rewards you for doing the boring upfront work lol