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Tried mise en place vs. winging it for a busy Saturday service. No contest which one kept me from having a breakdown.
I always thought mise en place was overrated until last month when I skipped it for a 200-cover brunch shift. Ended up burning my hand on a hot pan while scrambling for ingredients and tickets piled up for 20 minutes. Anybody else find that prepping everything beforehand actually saves more time than you lose?
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samwalker11d ago
Mise en place feels like wasted prep time when you're already swamped though...
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spencerm4611d ago
I actually read this article from a chef named Dan Barber where he talked about how the line cooks who set up their stations properly always did better during the rush, even when they were drowning in tickets. It stuck with me because he said the 15 minutes of mise en place saved them an hour of panic later. @samwalker I get that it feels like wasted time when you're already swamped, but I think the real trick is to treat it like a short investment that pays off hard. You'll move twice as fast with everything in its place, trust me.
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johnflores10d ago
The whole point of mise en place is that it feels like wasted time until you're in the weeds and suddenly everything is right where you need it. It's one of those things that feels dumb when you're slow but saves your whole night when things get crazy. Once you train yourself to do it without thinking, you'll wonder how you ever worked without it.
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