be prepared for the possibility of some language that might be natural in professional kitchens yet offensive to well-refined ears. proceed with caution...
what IS meant by the french phrase mise-en-place?
it's a term used by line cooks to describe the lay out of their work station. "everything in its place." a line cook's mise (meez) is as individual as his or her dna.
as anthony bourdain describes it in his book, kitchen confidential:
Mise-en-place is the religion of all good line cooks. Do not fuck with a line cook’s ‘meez’ — meaning his setup, his carefully arranged supplies of sea salt, rough-cracked pepper, softened butter, cooking oil, wine, backups, and so on.
As a cook, your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an extension of your nervous system…
The universe is in order when your station is set up the way you like it: you know where to find everything with your eyes closed, everything you need during the course of the shift is at the ready at arm’s reach, your defenses are deployed.
If you let your mise-en-place run down, get dirty and disorganized, you’ll quickly find yourself spinning in place and calling for backup. I worked with a chef who used to step behind the line to a dirty cook’s station in the middle of a rush to explain why the offending cook was falling behind. He’d press his palm down on the cutting board, which was littered with peppercorns, spattered sauce, bits of parsley, bread crumbs and the usual flotsam and jetsam that accumulates quickly on a station if not constantly wiped away with a moist side towel. “You see this?” he’d inquire, raising his palm so that the cook could see the bits of dirt and scraps sticking to his chef’s palm. “That’s what the inside of your head looks like now.”
per usual, anthony b. gets right to the point. for most of my life, i've been the line cook struggling to keep up with life's demands, unable to keep up with what should be done because i had a mess instead of a mise.
enough.
something went ZAMBOOIE! inside my deepest depth when i heard anthony bourdain describe his mise as his "religion, a fundamental principle, the tao of cooking." awareness came crashing in on me, careening its way around my brain & heart & soul, extending outward to refresh, reinvigorate energies waiting to be released. having the basics in my life in good order & easily within my reach has emerged as my religion, a fundamental principle, the tao of my being.
the core dynamics of my life have realigned themselves into an order that is personalized for my outreach, natural for my grasp.
we each need to find our own mise, our own components, our own arrangements, our own level of commitment to set it up in such a way that we can find whatever we need without the burden of delay or thought ~ it's at the ready, easily within our grasp.
Anthony B. goes on to say:
What exactly is this mystical mise-en-place I keep going on about? Why are some line cooks driven to apoplexy at the pinching of even a few grains of salt, a pinch of parsley? Because it’s ours. Because we set it up the way we want it. Because it’s like our knives, about which you hear the comment: ‘Don’t touch my dick, don’t touch my knife." Kitchen Confidential
out with the mess & on with the mise!
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