What Is Mise en Place, and Why Should You Use It?

Mise en Place: The Best Way to Start Cooking

Everything in its place. It’s a tidy philosophy for life—and even more so in the kitchen. Enter mise en place, a practice that makes cooking and meal prepping easier, quicker, cleaner, and more efficient.

“Mise en place” roughly translates from its native French to “everything in its place.” In short, it’s the practice of setting up the cooking station so that everything the cook needs is readily available. Ingredients, utensils, and other supplies are gathered; ingredients that need to be prepared, such as produce, are cleaned and made ready for cooking.

Mise en place is so important that it’s one of the first things aspiring chefs learn in culinary school. But it can—and should—extend to the home cook. In fact, HelloFresh believes in mise en place so thoroughly that it’s at the base of everything we do, from ingredient preparation to our recipe cards. Read on to learn more about the history and activities involved in mise en place.

The Beginnings of Mise en Place

Benefits of Mise en Place for Meal Prepping and Beyond

How to Set Up Your Mise en Place

Mise en Place Step 1: Read the Recipe

Before you can gather what you need, you have to know what you need. Read the recipe—not just the ingredients list—and figure out what’s involved. Note any steps that need to happen rapidly, like stirring cream into a caramel sauce to keep it from burning.

Mise en Place Step 2: Round Up Your Supplies

Teaspoons, measuring cups, paring knife, chef’s knife, zester: Make sure everything is clean and at hand. If there are steps in your recipe that require precise timing, look at what supplies you’ll need for that step—if you’re supposed to stir half a cup of cream into that caramel sauce, but you’ve used your liquid measure earlier in the recipe, consider having two measures ready or plan to wash one before you need it.

Mise en Place Step 3: Gather Your Ingredients

Fetch all your ingredients from the pantry or refrigerator. Measure out the ingredients (a set of small bowls comes in handy here). Again, do what works for you: If your recipe calls for six different spices, you can put them into bowls or just have the spice jars at the ready. If you’re setting up your mise en place well before you actually start cooking, you can put the ingredients that require refrigeration on a tray and store it in the fridge until you’re ready.

Mise en Place Step 4: Prep Ingredients

This is when you get ingredients into the state they’ll need to be in when you start cooking. Wash and dry produce, then slice, chop, or mince it according to the recipe. Wash and trim meat, zest citrus fruits, separate yolks from whites—you get the picture. Once you’re done, you can clean up your workspace, getting it ready for the main event.

HelloFresh’s Method to Mise en Place

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