This term is one of my favorites. I think about it often. If you aren’t familiar with this term please read on, it’s interesting and could enrich your life in many ways. It’s usually used in reference to cooking, but is an essential life skill that everyone should learn. Your life could be made far easier if so. Sometimes you just NEED things to be in place to facilitate whatever it is your doing to make it efficient with time not wasted looking for things because they aren’t where they belong. So what does mise en place mean?

Mise en place (pronounced MEEZ AWN PLAHZ) is a French term meaning “everything in place”. Of course it can be more than having everything in its place, it can also be a mindset – how you work to get things done. I first heard of this term not all that long ago, during a cooking class with Executive Sous Chef, Josh Vilain at The Swag in Waynesville, NC. When he was explaining the importance of mise en place, lightbulbs were going off in my head. I thought, thank goodness this is a real thing. I truly am not just picky!

I think I love the term so much because little things like where the spices are put back in the cabinet (or any other ingredients) MATTERS to me. I often reach and grab knowing I always put them in the same place then go to use them and whoa, it’s something else, grrrrr. My husband thinks I’m being picky, ha ha. But it’s important. I like to run a tight ship (full disclosure, there are just the two of us, ha ha). 

For me, when cooking, and because I am in no way a professional cook – I am not often in a big hurry as a real chef would be cooking for many people. However, I do like things to go smoothly (believe me, I have my moments), so I like to prep ingredients prior. Wash and prep veggies, marinate meat, get the pans ready, oven heating up, etc. 

In my mind, I’m going through the recipe (or thinking through what I’m making) beforehand. Do I have all the ingredients? Is everything prepped? Is it too early to start? What time do I want dinner to be done? What steps can be done earlier to quicken the end result?

Mise en place (to me) can even come down to the most mundane of tasks, like loading the dishwasher. There are two schools of thought (and you may have seen this on social media),  from the simplest how do you load a dishwasher? Me: Like an architect, everything in its place. Or like my husband: Like a raccoon on crack. I’m not complaining about him, he’s as neat as they come, but the kitchen cabinets and dishwasher are his free zone.

I’m even thinking about what to prep where. When we have chicken (or any meat) I try to keep it separate from the veggie prep area. With that being said we have a relatively small kitchen, so there is only so much room. But I will MOVE things in case chicken juice splats and we end up in a fate worse than death (or at least close). So to me, this is another area where mise en place comes in to play. I like my dish soap on the right, where I reach for it often. I like my hand soap on the left, where I reach for it a ridiculous amount of times each day. 

What is mise en place to you? And more importantly, are you an architect or a raccoon? 😉

Happy March!

Thank you, Josh for a great cooking class – we learned a lot. LOVE this term! 🙌

👩‍💻 Until next time… ✨ Take a moment to be grateful for at least one thing today – TODAY will be a good day, you’ve got this!