The system that makes kitchens go is called mise-en-place, or, literally, "put in place." It's a French phrase that means to gather and arrange the ingredients and tools needed for cooking.

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- bill 5-06-2016 12:28 pm [add a comment]

The thing that throws me off in other people's kitchens is the loss of fluidity. Where's the salt, where's the pepper, where's the chinois, where's the paprika? I really need to mise all the tools and ingredients that I take for granted. In my own kitchen, I can get a little complacent about that, because I know where certain basic tools and ingredients are. I can almost do a no-look pivot to pluck a pan, a knife, a spatula. Spending 60 seconds looking for something, or scrounging for a substitute, at a critical moment can lead to a sadly overcooked egg, fish or veggie.

My go-to for mise of smaller items/quantities is the custard cup. Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to store, cheap.

On the theme, racers will refer to their seat in the race car as their "office." Controls that fall to hand (or foot), displays in the right place, etc. all make a difference. It's a hot, noisy, dusty, stressful office, with triple digit speeds, and lateral forces that exceed the pull of gravity. So yeah, having a left foot rest (dead pedal) in just the right place, and a shifter knob close to the steering wheel, and the right set of numeric displays and warning lights, and all the other little things make a difference in performance. Describing a situation where I severely fucked up my "office" mise, I said, "Sometimes you lose the race before you even get to the track."