It’s French for “everything in its place,” and it’s how cooks are trained from the outset to prepare recipes.

It simply means that before starting to cook or bake, everything needed to prepare the recipe is gathered, pre-prepped (chopping onions or measuring flour, for example) and set on the counter in easy reach. Only then is a cook ready to begin.

It’s surprising how many home cooks don’t follow this simple system. If you’ve found yourself looking for the lemon to zest, stopping to hunt for a kitchen tool or realizing that you don’t have enough butter, you’ll find that cooking is more efficient and unharried when you put mis en place in place.

Thanks to Chef Louis Eguaras, author of 101 Things I Learned In Culinary School, for this tip.

All in place and ready to cook. Photo courtesy RestaurantWindow.com.