The Secret to Proper Mise en Place
Most home cooks think they understand preparation, but they’re missing the restaurant industry’s most crucial element. Mise en place literally means “put everything in place” and involves having all your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you start cooking, including chopping, dicing, measuring, and having all your utensils and pans at the ready. This is probably the most important thing you can do in the kitchen and is often overlooked by many home cooks. While you might think you’re doing this already, restaurants take it to another level.
Professional cooks spend hours chopping up meats, vegetables and herbs so they’re ready to add to the pan when they need them. It’s about organization and preparation, which can make the cooking process stress-free and fun. The concept of mise en place goes beyond just prepping ingredients. It’s about mental preparation as well. By having everything ready, you can focus on the cooking process, experiment with flavors, and enjoy the experience without the stress of scrambling for ingredients. This isn’t just about cutting vegetables ahead of time – it’s about transforming your entire relationship with cooking.
They Salt in Layers, Not Once
If you wait until the end to add salt, your food will taste salty instead of seasoned. Instead, salt as you go. When you’re sweating onions, add a small pinch of salt. Season your meat before you cook it, and add another tiny pinch after you deglaze. By the end of the cooking time, you’ll create a set of nuanced layers of flavor that will make your food stand out.
Salt more than you think you need to. This advice from professional kitchens might sound scary to home cooks, but there’s a massive difference between properly seasoning food and over-salting it. Restaurant chefs understand that salt doesn’t just add saltiness – it enhances every other flavor in your dish. When you add salt at different stages of cooking, you’re building complexity rather than just making things taste “salty.”
Temperature Control Through Ice Baths
An ice bath is a combination of water and ice. It is used to quickly stop the cooking process, especially when blanching or par boiling ingredients. I can understand ice baths in a restaurant context where ice is plentiful and you’re regularly blanching large batches of food but in my home kitchen, ice is scarce and a pain in the ass to make. This sentiment from a home cook perfectly captures why restaurants have such an advantage.
While you might think ice baths are only for fancy vegetables, restaurants use this technique for everything from pasta to proteins. For each food being cooled during the observation, data collectors recorded data on the type of food being cooled, the number of cooling steps involved in the cooling of the food, and the method used in each step to cool the food (refrigerating food at or below 41°F [5°C], ice bath, ice wand, blast chiller, ice or frozen food as an ingredient, room temperature cooling). For example, if a cooling food was first observed in an ice bath and was moved to a refrigerator later in the observation, the data collector would record an ice bath step and a refrigeration step. This precise temperature control allows restaurants to achieve textures that home cooks struggle with.
The Art of Blooming Spices
Dried spices are an essential pantry item, but adding them at the end of the cooking time often does a disservice to your food. They can turn out dry and chalky tasting if you don’t activate their essential oils and aromatic compounds. Let spices bloom by toasting whole spices in a dry pan before you grind them. Or, add ground spices after you sweat your onions in oil, about a minute before deglazing the pan.
Most home cooks just dump spices into their dishes without understanding this crucial step. When restaurants bloom spices, they’re literally awakening dormant flavors that would otherwise remain locked away. The difference between bloomed and unactivated spices is like comparing a whisper to a shout – both communicate, but one commands attention. This technique takes seconds but transforms ordinary dishes into something that tastes unmistakably professional.
Strategic Fat Selection and Usage
Each cooking oil has a unique flavor profile and different smoke points. That means some oils (like canola or peanut oil) are better suited for high-temperature frying, while fats like butter or lard are better for medium-heat sautéing and low-to-medium temperature cooking. Super fragrant oils, like extra-virgin olive oil and sesame oil, are best used raw as finishing oils or for salad dressings.
Master the use of just four elements – Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food – and anything you cook will be delicious. Restaurant chefs don’t just reach for whatever oil is convenient – they strategically choose fats based on what they want to accomplish. While home cooks often use one or two oils for everything, professional kitchens might have six different fats within arm’s reach, each serving a specific purpose. This isn’t about showing off – it’s about understanding that fat isn’t just a cooking medium, it’s an ingredient that can make or break your dish.
