Mise En Place
French cooks have a term called mise en place. Translated, it means, everything in its place. The only way to cook with speed and efficiency, and enjoy it, is to make sure your mise en place, or prep, is done BEFORE you start to cook a single ingredient. We’ve all been there… you cook the chicken breast, and then you realize you haven’t started cooking the rice and you didn’t even peel the carrots. Your mise en place was not ready and you’ve turned a 30 minute recipe into a 2 hour debacle. What most home cooks neglect to realize, is that mise en place starts with having the right ingredients in your home. How many of us have asked ourselves, “What should I cook for dinner tonight?” That question usually stems from two problems most home cooks have. First, they don’t really know how to cook multiple ingredients with different techniques. Second, most home cooks don’t have versatile ingredients, specifically seasonings, readily available in their homes to cook with. This creates the nightly dilemma of what to cook? Today, we are going to cover an important part of mise en place. That is, having the right equipment at hand to do your prep and eventually cook. Let's start -
The Chef Knife and Other Tools Proper cooking tools and utensils are as important as staple pantry ingredients in your home kitchen. The list of tools and utensils any home cook should have starts with the most important tool in the kitchen. A good chef’s knife. When buying a chefs knife you’ll discover, there’s a lot of options out there. So many, that it could get confusing at times. Ceramic, steel, forged, stamped, Asian, European? What does it all mean! Here are the characteristics your chef knife must have: Your knife needs to be forged, not stamped. This means that the blade has been through the forging process, where it’s introduced to fire and hammered out. It creates strength within the steel. Your knife needs to be made of high quality, surgical grade, stainless steel. Ceramic knives are nice and light, but, boy are they fragile. The weight of your knife is a personal preference, but, it should feel balanced in your hand. Never-ever put your chef’s knife in the dishwasher. Please always hand wash it. I repeat, never ever put your chefs knife in the dishwasher and always use a wet stone to sharpen your knife holding the angle of the knife at approximately 25 degrees. Don’t confuse sharpening with honing. When you sharpen a blade, you are actually removing some of the stainless steel, thus, sharpening the edge. When using a honing steel, you are honing the edge, or better yet, aligning the edge to perfectly cut true everytime. You aren’t actually removing any of the stainless steel from the blade. You should sharpen your knives at least once a month based on use but hone your blade every time you use it.
I’m hesitant to say this, but, you don’t necessarily need another knife, besides your chef knife. Your chef’s knife is like the ultimate utility player in the kitchen. But, you’ll certainly need other types of cooking utensils, and yes, knives too, if you want to start to outfit your kitchen. Here’s a list of a great starter kit: Chef’s Knife Paring Knife - meant to help trim fruits and vegetables. Serrated Knife - helpful when cutting breads and meats. Saute Pan - 6 to 10 inch is more than sufficient for the average home cook. Fry Pan - like a saute pan but with deeper sides and usually a lid. 2 Qt Pot - to help keep liquids warm. 6 Qt Pot - big enough to boil pasta for a family of four 10 Qt Pot - large enough to make stocks Pots and pans, like knives, should be made of stainless steel. You’ll want to asked how many “layers” of stainless steel the pot or pan has been manufactured with. Anything less than three layers, means your buying a subpar product. Pay up for pots and pans with at least pots with five layers of steel. This will result in more even distribution of heat and will also mean the pot or pan holds the heat for a longer amount of time. You’ll see pots and pans with copper inserts. Those are wonderful if you can afford the price tag. Cooper holds heat extraordinarily well and distributes heat very evenly. My ideal set of pots and pans have seven layers of stainless steel with a copper insert.
Isn't this a business blog? Having the right preparation in place leads to success in a kitchen and in business. This blog highlights the times where business and food meet - mise en place is a prime example of this intersection.
What's the "mise en place" you'll need to do prior to endeavoring into your business? Here's my suggested mise en place for your startup, things you should prepare before you even sell a single item: Understand your industry and competition - there's a lot in this statement, but, at the very least you'll need to understand, and to the level you can, speak with expertise on how your product is going to exist in this industry. Understand your finances and strategy around growth - Are you taking a loan? Are your boot-strapping? Do you have a plan and goal around sales? What percentage of sales are you allocating to additional marketing, product development, salary, etc... Again, lots to consider here.
Make sure your legal is legal - do you have a business license? If you're working in food, do you have your health permits? Are your taxes and payment schedule set up? Lots of "paper work" needs to be done prior to any sales happening.
Whether in the kitchen or in business you need to have your mise en place done before you fire anything up. Leave your comments or questions below about how you've prepped your business.
