Which type of a cook are you?

[Kokh Leffle]

I use my own modified version of mise en place. My prep consists of pealing, cutting and chopping my ingredients and lining them up on my cutting board (usually in the order Ill be using them). I can’t be bothered with the ramekins, bowls or recycled yoghurt containers. But I do like having everything at hand and ready to drop into the pot as I’m cooking.

Depending on what I’m cooking, I may have things on the go while I am still prepping. Always have a pot of water or stock coming to a boil. Or I have onion caramelizing while I finish up the prep.

I mostly use a recipe as a guideline or for inspiration. So I dispense with precise measurement and eyeball. The only time I don’t is when baking or when dry to wet ratios are critical (like rice, two parts liquid to one part rice). My herbs and spices are within reach and that’s exactly what I do when I need them.

I am only anal about two things. Everything has its place and I expect to find it exactly there. I literally want to reach for utensils and cookware and put my hand right on it without having to look. God help anyone who used my equipment and didn’t put it back EXACTLY where it belongs. I am also a clean as you go nut. When I’m done with something it gets washed as soon as I get a break in the cooking. The only cleanup left after a meal is the dishes and the cookware left on the stove after plating.

This works well for me and incorporates methods and style that I have developed as both a professional cook and a home cook.

[potsticker]

little bowls = more to wash.

i try to minimize the amount of stuff that needs to be washed when i cook. my mise (when it does happen) usually comes in the form of a whole bunch of ingredients in one big bowl that gets dumped in all at once. if it's just small stuff, i just leave them in little piles on the cutting board, since the cutting board is already in use. man, i'm really lazy.

[emmapeel]

little bowls = more to wash. 

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No, I agree, I only use as many bowls as steps. For instance, onions, carrots, celery and garlic = one bowl. If bok choy is to added later, it has a different bowl or is part of its step's bowl. One has to wash along the way or the sink is unusable.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Since beginning this "discussion", I find that I am consciously becoming more and more a mis en place type of cook!

With this discussion forcing me to examine more closely my 'style', I leave less and less to chance. Casually creative now finds no one at home here ...

Now? I am regimented and organized to a fare thee well! Bowls sit all over my counters, ranging from tiny to large ... measurements are handled with seriousness ... precision is my motto!

But somehow, it all seems to work well! Wonder when my former personality will emerge ...

[stephenc]

I dunno. I usually chop as I go along. I'm a fast chopper so I can get everything chopped as the oil warms up. Then it all goes in the skillet.

I cook chinese most of the time, so I usually finish cooking in 10-20 minutes total.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

I dunno.  I usually chop as I go along.  I'm a fast chopper so I can get everything chopped as the oil warms up.  Then it all goes in the skillet.

I cook chinese most of the time, so I usually finish cooking in 10-20 minutes total.

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Color me impressed. No way could I cook Chinese food or any other Asian food like that. Sadly I don't think I inherited my mother's speed at the wok, but I'm working on it. In the meantime, it has to be mise en place.

I also take a sort of pleasure in having a row of little containers with a spoon in each one, so I can just go boom boom boom boom boom right down the line adding spoonfuls of ingredients as needed. Thai, Indian and Chinese food = uber mise en place.

Pat

[NulloModo]

I do the bowl thing, but one big bowl. I tend to cook a lot of one-pot stuff, so this works, since it all gets mixed together anyway. In the rare event I am making something that is combined on the plate, I will use multiple big bowls, but still not that big of an issue, I just rinse them out and stick them back in the cupboard while the food cools enough to eat.

If I was anal enough to actually toss everything that touched rawish food into the dishwasher, then, well, who knows, I would probably not have the motivation to actually cook.

[wine&dine]

I love organization with lots of great music. I read lots of recipes, get out YES the many glass bowls, prep and with my music (mostly a mix of global), I create my own recipe often based on lots of reading.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Interesting sidebar: Part 2 of PBS' new show, "Cooking Under Fire", has an entire show dedicated to how the potential chef candidates decided to make up their respective mis en place presentations ...

[Ondine]

I think of myself as a semi-wing-it cook. Recipes are only ever strictly inspiration. I guess that's why I don't bake often - I tend to find the more structured format of successful baking to be a little frustrating. Even when doing more forgiving recipes like brownies I'll tinker with proportions whether or not I have sternly told myself not to. "That egg looks a little small, maybe I'll add an extra. This brand of semisweet chocolate can get a little sweet. I'll chuck in some extra cocoa. This gingerbread would be interesting with some cardamom; and damn, I'm out of nutmeg - guess I'll use some mace..."

That said, I do like to get most of the chopping or measuring type prep done before I actually get started using the power of fire or electricity. When making brownies I have the cocoa, sugar and flour lined up in bowls. And I'll tip the sugar into the bowl that held the cocoa to scrub the last traces out and into the batter. When I make a stew or stirfry the chopped veggies sit in several soup bowls ready to be tipped into the pot as I decide. But when it comes to aromatics or spices I rarely measure or prep mise. I'll shake spices 'by eye' straight into the pot or pan, or impulsively add sloshes, squirts or dribbles of things like heather honey, pomegranate molasses, 4-pepper oil or garlic vinegar. The only time I prep seasonings is when I make up a marinade. And it's never the same twice. (The inability to duplicate a dish is the only thing that frustrates me about the way I cook. Sometimes I'll add saved dribbles or sauce or dripping leftovers and the result is truly WOWSTUFF! but will never happen again. )

I also tend to wash up as I go. After finishing my prep I wash the stuff I can, then run a sinkful of hot soapy water. As the cooking proceeds used dishes and bowls get tossed into the sink to soak until cooking is over, wherupon they get washed and the prep area wiped down before "Come an' geddit!" is called. After eating, the leftovers are stored and put away, the dishes and cookpot is washed, and the stove is cleaned.

As I have a couple of meowing scavenger children-substitutes the main kitchen bin is out in the open (not lidded or in a cupboard), but secured under a milk crate known as 'The Cat Cage'. During prep and cooking I have a temp bin (a large unleaky plastic shopping bag) on the counter which gets finally tied up and stuffed in the bin. Any meat, bone or bloody refuse goes straight out into the main garbage bin outside and never stays in the house overnight. Skimmed off fat goes into recycled tin cans in the freezer to be thrown out when full. All this tends to happen this way as only I ever cook, prep or wash in my kitchen. My best friend and housemate sometimes cooks eggs but abides by my rule of "I don't want to have to deal with it if you cook", washing and cleaning it all up. I get a leetle bit antsy about My Kitchen.

So what category do I fall into?

[Gifted Gourmet]

So what category do I fall into?

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Possibly both, and, at times, either one or the other ... no hard data here .. I tend to view this as something of a continuum with possible "sliding" variations, depending upon time and energy, interruptions, etc.

One day, I find myself organized and very much into a mis en place cooking activity .. while I am more casual on other days ... lots of variables ...

[johnnyd]

Interesting sidebar: Part 2 of PBS' new show, "Cooking Under Fire", has an entire show dedicated to how the potential chef candidates decided to make up their respective mis en place presentations ... 

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Hey I saw that. Ruhlman/Ming/English simply said "Make your Mis en place" and they had an hour to come up with it. Very telling when a few appeared with semi-complete meals or prepped for one style of cuisine when non were mentioned. That show is good.

My general method is to set a meez if the dish demands your ass stays at the stove to cook. Otherwise I like to get away with prepping while things are simmering, but I'm quick about it. The chinese bowl setup with each to a step, emmapeel style, is the way to go.

[Keitha]

Hi there,

I'm a newbie to posting here at eGullet but I thought this post was a great time to jump in. :)

I fall somewhere in the middle with my mise - and it tends to depend on where/when I'm cooking.

I'm a personal chef, so in clients' homes or in the commercial space I use, I'm pretty organized. I use little bowls and tend to pay closer attention to the recipe, especially since most of the time several things are cooking at once.

When I'm at home though, it's not always the same story. I find I assume I have more things on hand than I actually do. I'll be positive I have sour cream in the fridge only to discover my husband used it to make nachos the night before...

Also, I tend to be messier at home, but I think that's because I know I won't be stuck with scrubbing here. (If it doesn't go in the dishwasher, it's my husband's job to wash it since I did the cooking. That was the rule at his house growing up! How lucky am I.)

[CharityCase]

I'm very much a mise man. Last night for instance, I made three indian dishes with a range of ingredients, cooking times and stages. I remember coming back from India and trying to do the same thing on the fly to impress my girlfriend. And so, everything was terrible. In some cases (as others mentioned upthread) it's essential for a recipe.

Raise your hand if being a mise fanatic drives your non-cooking partner crazy? (raises hand)

[johnnyd]

Raise your hand if being a mise fanatic drives your non-cooking partner crazy? (raises hand)

"HERE!"

...that and the clean-as-you-go deal. Somehow it does not compute. *sigh!*

[Gifted Gourmet]

After some months, I seem to have gotten used to being a mis en place type of cook in my own kitchen. But I do wonder if, by doing this, I have stifled the impulsive and creative parts of my culinary personality ...

anyone out there have an opinion on this?

[BarbaraY]

No, that's just being sensible. No reason to start something without reading through the recipe and seeing what you have to get ready.

For instance, if one is cooking Oriental food, the prep had better be done or the dish will probably be ruined.

Any sauté had better have everything ready that needs to be prepped.

For example, last evening I made a chicken sauté. I flattened the chicken breasts, minced garlic, chopped Greek olives, spooned out capers, set the salt cellar, olive oil and sherry in the cooking area.

It took about three minutes to do the whole thing.

It was really very good.

[Katie Nell]

I am a horribly, terribly disorganized cook.  With few exceptions, the only way I can pull a dish together - especially if I'm working from a cookbook - is to have everything out, diligently chopped and measured, and ready to go.  I *know* I should be able to mince the garlic while I'm sweating the onions.  But if I count on doing that, something will come up: the dog will decide he has to go out now (which means the cats have to come in), or I'll realize that I forgot to cut the basil and have to go outside to get it just when the sauce is thickening, or I'll get to the "add broth" stage and realize it's still in the freezer.

Even with the advance prep, I manage somehow to take up every square inch of counter space and then some, with chopped prepped things mixed up among the stuff waiting to be prepped, and a jar of spice toppled over into the sink.  I've been thinking I need to start a thread titled "how can I use my space more efficiently?" but I'm still working on an adequate description of my kitchen flailings so it could be useful for critique.

It's worst when I'm trying to follow a recipe I've never made.  Let me hear a piece of music only a few times, and I can play it for you.  Let me read a recipe a dozen times, and I'll still have to read it, step by painful step, ingredient by ingredient, when I actually make it the first (and maybe second) time.

"Let's see...3 cloves minced garlic, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, pinch of pepper..." <starts mincing>

<walks back over to the cookbook> "Was that 1 tsp salt or 1 tbsp salt?"

<measures>

<walks back to the cookbook> "Gaah.  Was that 1/4 tsp pepper or a pinch of cayenne?"

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If I didn't know that you lived in Lake Superior, I would have thought I wrote that and forgot about it! Yikes!

[Busboy]

After some months, I seem to have gotten used to being a mis en place type of cook in my own kitchen.  But I do wonder if, by doing this, I have stifled the impulsive and creative parts of my culinary personality ... 

anyone out there have an opinion on this?

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If the parsley's already chopped and the onions diced and the spices laid out, it just gives you more time to mess with whatever you're cooking, or, as I do, stare into the cupboard and mumble "it needs a something," while scanning the little used herbs and exotica hiding back in the shadows.

If you were creative before, you'll be a dang Picasso of the palate now.

[hjshorter]

After some months, I seem to have gotten used to being a mis en place type of cook in my own kitchen.  But I do wonder if, by doing this, I have stifled the impulsive and creative parts of my culinary personality ... 

anyone out there have an opinion on this?

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Eh, the creative part for me is not chopping the onions, herbs, garlic, etc., it's deciding how much to use, when to add them, whether it's done or needs more salt, pepper, vinegar, and so on.

Edited September 20, 2005 by hjshorter (log)

[Chris Amirault]

After some months, I seem to have gotten used to being a mis en place type of cook in my own kitchen.  But I do wonder if, by doing this, I have stifled the impulsive and creative parts of my culinary personality ... 

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Depends on how you define "creative," I guess. Mise enables me to make sure I have the proper elements to create: I feel like genuinely minced shallots, correctly proportioned curry spices, and carefully trimmed lamb cubes are expressions of my cooking creativity. Conversely, I definitely feel like haphazardly chopped, measured, and prepped items just express carelessness.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Conversely, I definitely feel like haphazardly chopped, measured, and prepped items just express carelessness.

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While I see your points, and they are quite well conceived, I really enjoy the impulsive side of my cooking: spying something in the refrigerator or on a shelf that fairly begs to enliven the dish I am preparing.

[MarketStEl]

Like the rest of me, I'm probably now a bit schizoid in the kitchen.

I try to do the full mise-en-place treatment most of the time. But I also now approach recipes much like this:

--Read the recipe and note the ingredients required.

--Assemble the jars containing the spices; chop, slice or otherwise make ready all other ingredients.

--Shake or sprinkle dry spices into liquid ingredients as I please.

--Taste as I cook.

Do I need therapy?

[Gifted Gourmet]

--Read the recipe and note the ingredients required.

--Assemble the jars containing the spices; chop, slice or otherwise make ready all other ingredients.

--Shake or sprinkle dry spices into liquid ingredients as I please.

--Taste as I cook.

Do I need therapy?

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Actually, I rather like your approach ... a modified meeze, as Bourdain calls it ... and as for the therapy? Maybe for other things but your cooking seems just extremely efficient to my way of thinking ...