Mise en place

It may be uncouth to be excited for today, but I don't care. I'm pretty psyched to spend my first day in a professional kitchen and helping to prepare for the dinner service tonight at Ludo Bites, which is referred to as mise en place. 

Mise en place is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to the ingredients, such as cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components that a cook requires for the menu items that they expect to prepare during their shift. Preparing the mise en place ahead of time allows the chef to cook without having to stop and assemble items, which is desirable in recipes with time constraints.

The concept of having everything in its place as applied to the work in a kitchen is likely to have become a staple around the time of Auguste Escoffier, who is well known for his development of the brigade system of running a kitchen. 

Post script: 

So newbie that I am, I forgot to bring my knives to the kitchen today but I did show up on time. I borrowed Eliot's exceptionally sharp knife and as I was preparing the mirepoix for the oxtail (to go in the creamy polenta with oxtail, black truffle and cantal cheese dish), I sliced the palm of my hand. But not to worry, because the next recipe I was prepping for was the boudin noir (a.k.a. blood sausage), chopping up pork back fat, onions, apples, and garlic. Talk about putting in your blood, sweat and tears into your work! Haha. Rest assured. None of mine made it into the recipe.

We had a mid-afternoon break when the Breadbar staff needed to wash the kitchen floors and settled in the front-of-house where I met with the rest of the kitchen crew working that night, a young efficient bunch who were passionate about food. So much so, that one remarked that all they seem to talk about is food when they get together. What they've eaten recently... What kitchen utensil they've purchased... What restaurants they've been to... and so on.

The hum of activity continued soon thereafter, with each person assigned to parts of the menu to tackle from cleaning chanterelle mushrooms, whipping up frosting, assembling the lobster tarte, cleaning and grating celery root, or in my case, plucking leaves off a dozen stems of hyssop (at least I think that was the herb) and scraping clean six dozen organic baby carrots, which appeared to have stained my hands. 

All in all, working in a professional kitchen is a wonderful experience. Without a doubt, it is back-breaking work. So, anyone considering a culinary profession better have passion for it, and if you get a chance to train under a creative genius like Ludo, jump on the chance because it is well worth it.

 

Punchlines

So what's with the provocative song titles these days? You Put Something Inside Me. I hate Christian Rock. WTF is next...?
Jesus Fills Me Up? I mean come on already! 


So Tuesday night at George's, huh?