Every trade has a few tricks, and cooking crews are no different. In our kitchen, any idea from clever to brilliant is welcomed, if it gets the job done better or faster. Luckily, our crew is culled from all over Manhattan and in fact all over the world from Ecuador to Korea. We are never short of opinions or ideas about proper technique, and rarely unanimous in our opinions.
One area of seeming universal approval is in the use of what is known as Mise en Place (pronounced "meez on ploss"). Simply put, it is the practice of pre-measuring and organizing all ingredients for a recipe before moving onto the procedure. On a restaurant “line”; which is what the battery of cooks who prepare the meals is known as, your “meez” is your life line.
A mise en place is your defense against the moment when the onions begin to burn because you are busy opening the bottle of wine to deglaze the pan with, or when the egg whites whip past soft peaks as you struggle to measure the ¼ cup of sugar.
The effectiveness of the mise en place becomes more and more obvious as a recipe becomes more involved, in a soup or a chock full chunk cookie recipe for example. Not only will cooking become less stressful, but your recipe will become one step closer to perfection once you cancel the possibility of that last second spring to find the baking powder or chopped garlic the recipe is calling for.
And don't worry about needing a cupboard full of bowls. Empty plastic take out containers, yogurt cups or sour cream containers work great. Also yard sales are a great place to pick up cheap stackable plastic or Pyrex cups that are just the kind of thing you'll want.
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