A Place For Everything.......
I hear it all the time: “Why don't
you open a restaurant?” My answer is usually along the lines of “been there, done that” and besides, I like to cook. Nothing will spoil a love of cooking faster than running a restaurant. I'll bet I didn't want to go near a stove for six months after the last place I got out of. No, I'm perfectly happy with the occasional work I get as a personal chef and doing some small time catering here and there. But even at that I hear, “I just
don't know how you do it. I could never deal with all that pressure.”
Or, “Cooking is so stressful!”
And for those who feel that way, I suppose it is. But the reason they
feel cooking is such a stressful, pressure-ridden chore is because
they are such a hopelessly disorganized mess. I've seen some of these
people in action in the kitchen and it stresses me
out just to watch them. But it doesn't have to be that way. The
secret to calm, confident, efficient, and fun cooking
is organization. The pros call it “mise en place.”
Mise en place
(me-zahn-plahs) is one of those fancy French terms you learn in
culinary school. The term literally translates to “setting in
place” or “putting in place,” and the concept itself is
ridiculously simple: everything has a place and you just need to get
organized before you start. Mise en place
is a method or a state of mind that, when properly and consistently
applied in any kitchen, results in a smooth-flowing, time saving
cooking process, thus enabling even a beginning home cook to
efficiently produce delicious, quality meals. No pressure, no stress.
The late chef Anthony Bourdain often referred to mise en
place as his "religion."
Let's prepare some spaghetti sauce,
okay? And we're gonna do it right; we're not gonna open a jar, were
gonna make the sauce from scratch. “Oh, no!,” I hear you wail.
“That's such a mess!” Nah-h-h. Not if you do it right.
First and most importantly, you need to
read your recipe. All of it. All the way through. Ingredients and
procedure. If you don't, you're setting yourself up for potential
problems and stress.
Here's a sauce recipe of Rocco
DiSpirito's that I particularly like:
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
fine
3 tbsp olive oil
2 (28-ounce) cans tomato puree
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 cup chicken stock
Red pepper flakes to taste
Salt to taste
In a large saucepan, cook the garlic
and onion in the olive oil over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes
or until the garlic is tender and the onions are translucent, not
brown. Add the red pepper flakes to taste.
Add all the tomato products. Pour
the chicken stock into one of the 28-oz cans. Fill it the rest of the
way with water and add that and the sugar to the pot. Stir and bring
to a simmer. Taste and season with salt and cover. Simmer the sauce
for about 1 hour. The sauce should be fairly thin, but not watery and
very smooth. Uncover and simmer for 3 minutes if it is too thin for
your taste; add a little water if it seems thick.
Okay, did you read all that? If you
did, you found out you're going to need ten ingredients, five of
which are canned, jarred, or bottled and two of which will require
cutting and/or chopping. So you'll need a can opener, a knife, and a
cutting surface, right? A couple of things need to be measured, so
that means measuring cups and spoons. You need a saucepan with a
cover and a couple of spoons, one to stir with and one to use for
tasting. And you need to allow about an hour for cooking. And don't
forget to include some additional time up front for all the prep
work.
Now, I know a lot of folks who would
look at that recipe and proceed like this: they would start by going
to the shelf or cupboard for a saucepan. Then they walk over to the
stove and place it on a burner. Then they go over to the pantry and
find some olive oil and carry it back to the stove. Next, they hunt
for some measuring spoons and then head back to the stove to measure
in the oil. Now it's back to the pantry again to get some garlic and
then a search for a knife or a garlic press. The knife is easy:
that's in the drawer with the silverware. But where in the world is
that garlic press? Oh, yeah.
It's under the cabinet with the aluminum foil and the cereal. Once
the garlic is crushed, it's back to the pantry for an onion. Then
they locate a cutting board somewhere and go back to the counter
where they left the knife. After they chop the onion, they go back to
the stove and turn on the burner. Now they add in the garlic and
onion and then they look for a wooden spoon with which to stir it.
Then it's back to the pantry for the tomato products, moving quickly
so the garlic and onions don't burn. Find the can opener in the same
cabinet where the garlic press was and open all the cans of tomato
product. Ooops! Forgot the red pepper flakes! Back to the pantry.
Guess what? No red pepper flakes. Too late now. We'll just have to
leave them out. So, now the tomato products are in. Back to the
pantry for the chicken stock. Locate the can opener again and open
the can. Find a measuring cup – it's in the drawer with the dish
towels – and measure out the stock. Over to the sink to get some
water then back to the pantry for the sugar. Find the measuring
spoons again and measure out the sugar, then go back over to the sink
and get the can with the stock and the water. Then over to the stove
to dump it all in the pan and stir it up. Go get the salt shaker off
the dining room table and then go back to the stove to add the salt
to the sauce. Go over to the silverware drawer and get a spoon, then
step back over to the stove to taste the sauce. Now, just figure out
which lid fits the pan, cover it and the hard part is done! Whew!
That was way harder than it needed to
be. And if that's anywhere near your method, no wonder you hate to
cook.
Have you ever watched a cooking show on
TV and noticed that the chef had all the pots, pans and tools right
at hand and all the ingredients neatly laid out in little bowls so
they could just dump the prepared contents of the bowls into the
waiting pans and create perfect dishes? That's the way the big time
TV chefs do it, baby. You don't see them running back to the fridge
for a carrot, now do you? Nope. A whole bunch of people in the prep
kitchen make sure that everything is laid out and ready before the
host chef ever smiles at the camera. That's why it looks so easy on
TV. Emeril might be the one to “bam!” his way through the recipe,
but there's a lot of folks working off camera to make sure that his
mise en place is set up the
way he needs it. Well, in your kitchen, you're the prep cook.
Here's
the way it should go: after you've read the recipe, clear the decks.
Prepare your work area. Get rid of junk and clutter that will
only get in your way as you try to work. Clean off counters and work
spaces and clean up any dirty dishes you've got lying around. If you
start work in a dirty, cluttered, disorganized kitchen, you're just
ratcheting up the stress level.
Now set about gathering your
ingredients and your equipment. Most kitchen disasters happen when
you get halfway through preparing a dish only to discover that you
don't have a necessary ingredient. It's those "Darn! I thought I
had some of that" surprises that can ruin a cooking experience.
To say nothing of a dish.
After you've got your ingredient ducks
in a row, work on your equipment. Any necessary pots or pans as well
as measuring cups, spoons, mixing bowls, blenders, choppers,
spatulas, etc. Get them all together in one place so you're not
running all over the kitchen after them.
Open all the cans, measure out all the
liquid and dry ingredients and place them in handy prep bowls or
containers. You know what works well for me? I love the little
plastic cups from individual serving fruits or applesauce. You know,
the kind you pack in lunches. I've got stacks of 'em and they make
great prep cups. Chop up the vegetables and put them in prep bowls or
containers. This is called making things "cooking ready."
If you have ingredients that are going to be cooked at the same time,
such as in a mirepoix or soffrito, it's okay to combine them at this
stage. Now, you just assemble all the prepared ingredients into the
prepared cookware and you're done with the hard part, except it
wasn't nearly as hard because you were organized from the
start.
Running all over the kitchen looking for the salt or a baking pan or a wooden spoon after you've started your recipe wastes time and energy. Preparing ahead of time allows you to cook without having to stop and assemble items, important in recipes with time constraints. Mise en place also allows you to cook in an orderly fashion. Let's face it, trying to chop the carrots while the onions are sauteing is a good way to foul up both. Poor preparation usually leads to poor outcomes. And mise en place is particularly beneficial if you are preparing more than one recipe or one with multiple steps. For instance, if my wife is baking an Italian cream cake, I'll set up her “mise” for her so that all the ingredients for the cake are laid out in one area, the stuff for the chocolate ganache is set up in another area, and the ingredients for the frosting are prepped and waiting in another spot. Having everything laid out in advance enables her to move efficiently from one preparation step to the next, just like those TV chefs!
Running all over the kitchen looking for the salt or a baking pan or a wooden spoon after you've started your recipe wastes time and energy. Preparing ahead of time allows you to cook without having to stop and assemble items, important in recipes with time constraints. Mise en place also allows you to cook in an orderly fashion. Let's face it, trying to chop the carrots while the onions are sauteing is a good way to foul up both. Poor preparation usually leads to poor outcomes. And mise en place is particularly beneficial if you are preparing more than one recipe or one with multiple steps. For instance, if my wife is baking an Italian cream cake, I'll set up her “mise” for her so that all the ingredients for the cake are laid out in one area, the stuff for the chocolate ganache is set up in another area, and the ingredients for the frosting are prepped and waiting in another spot. Having everything laid out in advance enables her to move efficiently from one preparation step to the next, just like those TV chefs!
Another huge and often overlooked
aspect of mise en place involves clean up. Since mise en
place starts and ends with everything in its place, an essential
part of the process is cleaning up as you go. Don't let dishes stack
up and accumulate as you're cooking. Clean them up and put them away
as you use them. Mess equals stress. Clean as you go. That way, when
you're finished cooking, instead of a daunting pile of dirty dishes
and cookware, you have a complete meal, a clean kitchen and a low
stress level. Win, win! And your kitchen is ready for the next round.
Honestly, I cannot
fathom how some people function in kitchens that are disorganized to
begin with with and wind up looking like war zones by the time they
finish cooking a meal. I am acquainted with several people who just
throw things into drawers and cabinets without regard to what goes
with what. Mixing bowls live with canned goods, plastic wrap resides
with frying pans, silverware inhabits two or three separate drawers.
Yeesh! People, the department stores are full of nifty organizers to
help you put your kitchen together more efficiently. If I had to go
on safari every time I needed a measuring spoon, I'd probably get
sick of cooking, too.
And then there are
the people who employ every dish in the kitchen in the preparation of
a meal and just stack all the used cookware in tremendous piles. I
kid you not, I once knew a woman who stacked her dirty dishes on the
floor when she ran out of sink and counter space. I don't have to
tell you how nasty that is, do I? And then these people survey the
nightmare they've created in the simple preparation of a pot of
spaghetti and wail about what a chore cooking is! Please!
My
drawers, cabinets, and countertops are neat and organized and I know
where everything is. I don't have baked on messes on my cooktop
because if something spills or boils over while I'm cooking, I clean
it up on the spot. I keep a sink full of hot, soapy water on hand as
I'm preparing dishes and as I use a pan or a bowl or a utensil, I
wash it and put it away. The stand mixer and the food processor get
cleaned and put back in their corners as soon as I'm through with
them. When I finish preparing a four-course meal, my sink,
countertops, and stovetop don't look much different than when I
started. A place for everything and everything in its
place.
Admittedly, on the surface mise en place sounds like a lot of extra time, extra work, and extra dishes. But it's really not and it's also the best route to less stressful cooking. Proper preparation will make any cooking experience a more efficient, productive, and enjoyable one. And the confidence you gain from being more efficient and productive may lead you to try more ambitious and more flavorful recipes, making you an all around better cook. And one who's considerably less stressed.
Admittedly, on the surface mise en place sounds like a lot of extra time, extra work, and extra dishes. But it's really not and it's also the best route to less stressful cooking. Proper preparation will make any cooking experience a more efficient, productive, and enjoyable one. And the confidence you gain from being more efficient and productive may lead you to try more ambitious and more flavorful recipes, making you an all around better cook. And one who's considerably less stressed.
Mise en place – “set
in place.” If, like Anthony Bourdain, you make it your “religion”
in the kitchen, cooking will never
again seem like such a stressful chore.
Buon appetito!
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