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... translates literally to "putting in place" or "everything in place."



Simple. But to nearly any cook or chef worth their salt, it is practically a religion.



It expands beyond the workstation to body, mind, and life.



Because just as much as if your prep isn't done, your tools where you need them, your station not clean and organized, if your head isn't in order, focused and organized on the task at hand, your food is just going to suck. Either you'll be scrambling to remember where in the hell you put your towel so you can pull that dish out of the broiler before it turns into charcoal, or you'll be arguing with yourself, trying to remember which plate which doneness of meat goes with, or trying to figure out what you still need to do for which tickets, and FUCK you still haven't fired that order that the expediter gave a two minute call on about a minute and forty-five seconds ago. Either way, you're in the weeds. You rush, scramble, and stress and start just grinding out your plates instead of taking the time to do them right to try to catch up. Then plates start coming back, and you're even more behind.



It's not pretty.



And it's not just in the kitchen.



Anthony Bourdain's definition of mise en place is my favorite, "Prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance."



It's not something I'm great at yet. But seeing the necessity of it in the kitchen has made me see the importance of it in life.



How often have you found yourself trying to just get by, when you could have prepared a bit better and glided through?

Hagen Dazs Five Vanilla Bean ice cream with a strawberry and balsamic vinegar syrup.



The ice cream alone is fantastic, perfect example of how taking a few simple quality ingredients and using them properly can work just as well as expensive fancy shit.



The syrup has a great flavor... if you doubt using vinegar with ice cream, or other desert type dishes, give it a try. Good strawberries with a light drizzle of balsamic are fantastic. The plain white distilled vinegar that is most commonly found in home kitchens is almost useless in cooking. It's kind of like Everclear, you can use it, but pretty much any alternative is going to taste better.

COMMENTS

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CryingDutchess
05:39 Aug 16 2009

Wait! This sounds amazing -- how do you make your syrup? Simple sugar and strawberries, then balsamic vinegar brought to a boil?

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