MISE EN PLACE
CHAPTER 7
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
MISE EN PLACE
KEY POINTS
• Cooks must have a talent for organization and efficiency.
• Many tasks must be completed over a given time and by
a limited number of workers.
• All must come together at one crucial point: service time.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
MISE EN PLACE
Key Points (cont’d)
• Chefs take pride in the thoroughness and quality of their
advance preparation, or mise en place.
• Mise en place
: French term, meaning “everything
put in place.”
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
PRE-PREPARATION
• Pre-preparation is necessary! You must:
– Assemble your tools.
– Assemble your ingredients.
– Wash, trim, cut, prepare, and measure your raw
materials.
– Prepare your equipment.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
THE SOLUTION
• The Chef must plan pre-preparation carefully:
– Break down each menu item into its stages of production.
– Determine which stages may be done in advance.
– Determine the best way to hold each item at its final stage of prepreparation.
– Determine how long it takes to prepare each stage of each
recipe.
– Plan a production schedule beginning with the preparations that
take the longest.
– Examine recipes to see if they might be revised for better
efficiency and quality as served.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
The Solution (cont’d)
• Holding temperature: The temperature at which a
product is kept for service or for storage.
• Holding temperatures for all potentially hazardous foods
must be outside the Food Danger Zone.
– Food Danger Zone: 41ºF (5ºC) to 135ºF (57ºC)
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
THE GOAL
• The goal of pre-preparation is to do as much work in
advance as possible without loss of quality.
• Quality should always take highest priority.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
ADAPTING PREPARATION TO STYLE OF SERVICE
Set Meal Service
• All customers eat at one time.
• Often called quantity cooking because large batches are
prepared in advance.
• Examples: school cafeterias, banquets, employee dining
rooms
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
ADAPTING PREPARATION TO STYLE OF SERVICE
(cont’d)
Extended Meal Service
•Customers eat at different times.
•Often called à la carte cooking; customers usually select
items from a written menu (carte in French).
•Individual items are cooked to order rather than cooked
ahead.
•Examples: restaurants, short-order counters
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
PRODUCTION
MISE EN PLACE: THE REQUIRED TASKS
• A large part of a cook’s workday is spent doing mise en
place.
• A large part of learning how to cook is learning how to do
mise en place.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
KEEPING A SHARP EDGE
The Sharpening Stone
• Follow these guidelines:
– Hold the blade at a
constant 20-degree
angle to the stone.
– Make light, even
strokes, the same
number on each side
of the blade.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
KEEPING A SHARP EDGE (CONT’D)
The Sharpening Stone (cont’d)
•Sharpen in one direction only to get a regular, uniform edge.
•Do not oversharpen.
•Finish with a few strokes on the steel (see next slide), and then wipe
the blade clean.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
KEEPING A SHARP EDGE (CONT’D)
The Steel
•Follow these guidelines:
•Hold the blade at a constant 20-degree angle to the steel, just
as when using the stone.
– A smaller angle will be ineffective. A larger one will dull the
edge.
•Make light strokes; do not grind the knife against the steel.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
KEEPING A SHARP EDGE (CONT’D)
The Steel (cont’d)
•Make even, regular strokes. Alternate each stroke, first on one
side of the blade, then on the other.
•Use no more than five or six strokes on each side of the blade;
too much steeling can actually dull the blade.
•Use the steel often; then, you will rarely have to sharpen the
knife on the stone.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
HANDLING THE KNIFE
The Grip
•A proper grip
– Gives you maximum
control over the knife.
– Increases your cutting
accuracy and speed.
– Prevents slipping.
– Lessens the chance of
an accident.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
HANDLING THE KNIFE (CONT’D)
The Grip (cont’d)
•The type of grip you use
depends, in part, on the job
you are doing and the size
of the knife.
•Many Chefs fell that
grasping the blade with the
thumb and forefinger gives
the greatest control.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
HANDLING THE KNIFE (CONT’D)
The Guiding Hand
• Proper positioning of the hand achieves three goals:
– Hold the item being cut.
– Guide the knife.
– Protect the hand from cuts.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
BASIC CUTS AND SHAPES
• Cutting food products into
uniform shapes and sizes
is important for two
reasons:
1. It ensures even
cooking.
2. It enhances the
appearance of the
product.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
Basic Cuts and Shapes (cont’d)
•
•
•
•
Chop: to cut into irregularly shaped pieces
Concasser
: to chop coarsely
Mince: to chop into very fine pieces
Emincer
: to cut into very thin slices (does not
mean “to mince”)
• Shred: to cut into thin strips
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
CUTTING TECHNIQUES
• Slicing
– When food items are cut into round slices as shown,
the cut is called rondelle.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
USING THE KNIFE
Cutting Techniques (cont’d)
Bâtonnet
Dice
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USING THE KNIFE
Cutting Techniques (cont’d)
Tourné
Julienne
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USING THE KNIFE
Cutting Techniques (cont’d)
Paysanne
Lozenges
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USING THE KNIFE
Cutting Techniques (cont’d)
Fermiére
Oblique
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
BLANCHING AND PARCOOKING
• Advance preparation often requires precooking and
flavoring of ingredients to make them ready for use in the
finished recipe.
– Partial cooking may be done by any moist-heat or
dry-heat method.
– The term blanching may mean any of these
methods:
• simmering or boiling (parboiling)
• steaming
• deep-frying (especially for potatoes)
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
BLANCHING AND PARCOOKING (CONT’D)
• There are four main reasons for blanching or parcooking:
1. To increase holding quality
2. To save time
3. To remove undesirable flavors
4. To enable the product to be processed further
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
MARINATING
• Marinate: to soak a
food product in a
seasoned liquid in order
to:
– Flavor the product
– Tenderize the
product
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
MARINATING (CONT’D)
• Marinades have three categories of ingredients:
1. Oil
2. Acid from vinegar, lemon juice, wine
3. Flavorings—spices, herbs, vegetables
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
MARINATING (CONT’D)
• Kinds of marinade:
– Cooked
– Raw
– Instant
– Dry
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PRELIMINARY COOKING AND
FLAVORING
BRINING
• Brines are similar to marinades.
• The primary use of brines is in curing, but it is also used
for tenderizing.
• Brines are rarely used for red meats.
• During brining salt interacts with proteins, because of
this, the capacity of the meat to hold moisture is
increased.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PREPARATION FOR FRYING
BREADING
• Coating a product with bread crumbs or other crumbs or
meal before deep frying, pan-frying, or sautéing
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
PREPARATION FOR FRYING
BREADING (CONT’D)
The Three Stages of the Standard Breading Procedure
1. Flour
2. Egg wash
3. Crumbs
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
32
HANDLING CONVENIENCE FOODS
KEY POINTS
• Convenience food: Any product that has been partially
or completely prepared or processed by a manufacturer.
• Convenience products are not a substitute for culinary
knowledge and skill.
• It takes as much understanding of basic cooking
principles to handle convenience products as it does
fresh, raw ingredients.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.