Have you ever marveled at a television chef’s skill in assembling a complicated dish? The chef’s quick, sure motions may come from years of practice, but there’s another reason the cooking proceeds so smoothly. By “prepping” ingredients beforehand, the chef has simplified the final assembly. Instead of stopping repeatedly—to, say, chop mushrooms, open a bottle of wine or wash parsley—the chef fluidly adds to the pan ingredients that have already been washed, chopped and measured.

Professional cooks use a system called mise en place (a French phrase, pronounced meez ahn PLAHS, that means “put in place”) to organize their work. Mise en place means having all your ingredients ready up to the point of cooking or assembling, and it does more than keep a cooking show moving at a lively pace. For me, the principles of mise en place improve my overall cooking by allowing me to think clearly and move quickly, especially when I have several dishes to prepare or a kitchen crisis strikes.

Think things through

Before you even start to wash and chop, read your recipe, if you’re using one. This may sound obvious, but even the best cooks can be caught off guard by not planning or reading ahead.

The ingredient list, obviously, lets you know the items you’ll need to complete the recipe. Most ingredient lists will also include any straightforward prepping you need to do: “2 shallots, finely chopped” or “5 tablespoons butter, softened.” The more complicated procedures, however, are usually found in the recipe text, which is why you need to read through to the end.

By thoughtfully reading the recipe text, you also learn that you should have the dry ingredients for your cake measured in a small bowl, your eggs separated and your butter melted. Reading through long, involved recipes also allows you to break down the elements and spread out the work over time. For instance, you might make the filling and sauce for ravioli the day before you make the pasta dough.

Rough out the sequence to determine your timing. A good recipe has its steps written in an order that makes good timing sense. For instance, every soufflé recipe calls for whipping the egg whites just before incorporating them to minimize the risk that they’ll deflate. At the other end of the timing spectrum is the custard that needs an overnight chill before you can churn it into ice cream or the pork roast that needs to be brined before it goes into the oven.

Getting a sense of timing is especially critical when you’re trying to coordinate several dishes, each of which has tricky timing. If you’re sautéing spinach to go with your veal scaloppini, you’ll need to cook both simultaneously. This isn’t a difficult task if your spinach is washed and trimmed, the butter is out and the pan is on the stove. Then, as you’re sautéing the veal on one burner, you can easily cook the spinach on another.

Assemble everything that’s needed

Do a visual check of ingredients well ahead of time. If I’m going to discover that there are only a few drops of maple syrup when I need a cup, I’d rather find out before starting the recipe, not while making it. And give perishable ingredients a close inspection to verify freshness.

Although not always mentioned in recipes, equipment and utensils are part of the mise en place. You may find out too late in the game that a tomato sauce requires a pass through the food mill or that a certain bread requires a baking stone. Mise en place also includes such preparations as lining baking sheets with parchment.

Look for an overlap of ingredients in recipes. By chopping extra parsley or grating more cheese, you may be able to avoid repeating the same step for another dish.

Prep time

Once you have carefully thought through your recipe, it’s time to wash, trim, weigh, toast, measure, chop, slice, sift, soften, chill, blanch, melt, mince, drain—all those things that need to be done before the final cooking. This prep work may seem mundane, but it’s the foundation of success in executing almost any recipe.

Begin by choosing a logical “station” for each mise en place. I set salad makings to the right of my sink, because most need washing, while I put ingredients for baked goods conveniently close to my mixer and pastry board.

Clean and prep with care. I take my time cleaning leeks, for instance, since I know that any grit left behind could spoil the dish. If I’m prepping in advance, I store the ingredient properly—for instance, covering peeled potatoes with cold water or freezing dough for a pie I’ll make next week.

The right containers make measuring go faster. Graduated mixing bowls work well for holding medium to large amounts of ingredients. Ramekins or little bowls are good for smaller amounts, such as garlic and ginger intended for a stir-fry. Sometimes I use paper plates or, for advance prep work, recloseable plastic bags.

Err on the generous side when you’re unsure of quantities—especially if prepping more later would be inconvenient. If I’m making lasagne, I’d rather cook a few extra noodles than risk running short.

Not everything needs to be measured in advance. Measuring at assembly time makes sense when quantities are in doubt or needn’t be precise. For a vinaigrette, for instance, you could group oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, each in its own container, ready to be combined and tasted.

Clean as you go. Remember that mise en place means to put in place—this applies to garbage, too. As you trim the vegetables, throw away (or compost) the inedible portions cluttering your workspace. Carefully wash your cutting board after trimming raw chicken to avoid cross-contamination. Put away the flour canister to make room on the counter for your mixer.

As a kitchen philosophy

Mise en place affects just about everything you do in the kitchen. Thoughtful purchasing and placement of ingredients pay off in speedier food preparation with fewer glitches.

This means replenishing staples before they run out and storing frequently used ingredients and equipment where they’re accessible. The kosher salt I use all the time stands in a covered jar next to the stove, while the tongs and spatulas that I reach for most often are in an easily accessible drawer. I also group pantry items that are destined for the same recipes. Keeping items used for baking in one spot, for example, means fewer trips to the pantry when baking a cake or a batch of biscuits.

I think mise en place is best understood not as a set of rules, but as a discipline leading to a more orderly and functional kitchen and better work habits. Beyond those benefits, the system offers insight into the logic of recipes and cooking itself. Suppose an apple pie with pecan streusel is on your menu, for instance. Simply following the recipe can be a linear and somewhat mindless exercise. Alternatively, you can think of the process as bringing together a four-part mise en place: crust, filling, topping, whipped cream garnish.

I once met a pastry chef whose recipes are recorded in a small notebook. Nearly all consisted merely of the mise en place; after a quarter century of baking, the techniques were second nature to him. From those lists, he could prepare dozens of desserts, with hundreds of variations. “Keep it simple,” said Auguste Escoffier. Mise en place was the great French chef’s guide in that quest, and it can be ours as well.

Originally published in Fine Cooking magazine; this version includes author’s additions. Photo credit: Jennifer Murphy