Mise en place

When it matters, and when it does not

It is not always worth doing. A braise that simmers for three hours gives you plenty of time to chop the next thing while the first is cooking, and preparing everything up front is wasted effort.

It becomes essential the moment the cooking is faster than the preparation. A stir-fry takes four minutes and cannot be paused; a risotto needs constant attention; a sauté burns in the thirty seconds you spend hunting for the soy sauce. Those are the dishes where mise en place is not a nicety.

The rough test: if any step takes less than a minute, prepare everything first.

The routine

1. Read the whole recipe before you start. All of it, including the end, so you know what is coming.
2. Clear the worktop. You need more space than you think, and clutter is what makes a kitchen stressful.
3. Get everything out — ingredients, pans, utensils, bowls, the tin opener. Anything you have to look for mid-cook is a delay you cannot afford.
4. Prepare and measure everything. Chop, weigh, mix the sauce, open the tins.
5. Group things by when they go in. Aromatics in one bowl, hard vegetables in another, sauce in a jug.
6. Put a bin bowl on the counter for peelings, and a damp cloth under the board.
7. Then start cooking.

Organising the space

• A bin bowl on the counter. Peelings, packaging, trimmings. It saves dozens of trips and keeps the board clear.
• A damp cloth under the chopping board, always. It stops the board sliding and it is the cheapest safety measure there is.
• A wet towel and a dry towel. One for wiping, one for drying and handling hot things. A damp towel conducts heat and will burn you.
• Clean as you go. Wash or stack while things simmer. The alternative is a kitchen that looks like a disaster at the point you want to eat.
• Keep salt, oil and pepper within arm's reach of the hob. You will use them constantly.
• Preheat the oven first, before anything else. It is the longest lead time in most recipes and the easiest to forget.

Working ahead

Mise en place extends beyond a single cook, and this is where it saves real time.

• Chop onions, carrots and celery for the week and keep them in a box.
• Blanch and refresh green vegetables, then finish them at the last minute.
• Parboil and shake roast potatoes the day before, and keep them cold.
• Make a large batch of a base — soffritto, curry base, tomato sauce — and freeze it in portions.
• Toast a jar of nuts or breadcrumbs.
• Caramelise a large batch of onions and freeze it in tablespoons.

What it actually saves you

• Time you did not know you were losing. Chopping while something is in the pan means the pan is unattended, and unattended is where burning happens.
• Missing ingredients. Finding out you have no garlic is a problem before you start and a disaster ten minutes in.
• Order errors. Laying things out in the order they go in makes the sequence physical rather than remembered.
• Overcooking. Anything fast — stir-fries, pasta sauces, eggs, fish — is lost while you look for the soy sauce.
• Washing up at the end. Cleaning as you prepare leaves the kitchen usable when you need space most.
• The stress, which is the real one. Most of the unpleasantness of cooking under time pressure is doing two things at once, and preparation removes it.

Common questions