Mise en place

Mise en place designates the set of preparations carried out before service in haute cuisine: cuts, stocks, sauces, preliminary plating, organisation of work stations. This French discipline inherits from the Escoffier brigade system of the late 19th century. In three MICHELIN star tables, mise en place often mobilises four to six hours of morning work to prepare an evening service. Rigorous mise en place is considered the main marker of a kitchen's operational excellence, just after product quality (Source: Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide culinaire, 1903).