What professionals do is called mise-ing (pronounced meesing). This term refers to the French phrase mise en place, meaning to prepare all the ingredients in a recipe so that cooking is streamlined. This prepare-ahead-of-time approach makes it easier to make a dish without having to cut everything up as you go. It’s a way of capitalizing on your momentum.

It is used in professional kitchens to organize and arrange the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a restaurant or café shift. It’s the reason restaurants are able to deliver so many different dishes to your table in a small amount of time. The practice is also effective in home kitchens.

In other words, for a more organized kitchen routine that calls for far less time and energy, think and work like a professional chef. And the place to start is with mise-ing. Some cooks call it their religion. It helps them coordinate vast amounts of labor and material, and transforms the lives of its practitioners through focus and self-discipline.

Professional cooks consider it a way of life, a way of concentrating your mind to only focus on the aspects that you need to be working on at that moment, to kind of rid yourself of distractions. In fact, many of the more successful chefs will admit they even arrange their home offices as they would their restaurant/café mise-en-place. Desks, for instance, are specifically organized based off of where they reach for things the most. It involves being so methodical to the point that you continually put your pen back in one specific place. (Makes sense. Don’t most of us do this with our car keys, for instance?)

Ok, so how is this level of organization attained?

It starts with a list and the right mindset. Mise-en-place forces cooks to account for every minute of their time and every movement. An instructor at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Dwayne Lipuma, says "Every component of one single dish is in one single spot so your hand literally moves inches." He explains that once you set up your station he should be able to blindfold you and you should know that your tongs are always here, your oil is always right here, your salt and pepper is always right there. This way, a smart cook is always ready to go, Lipuma says. "You always have one foot pivoted, just like a basketball player."

And every professional chef says the foundation of mise-en-place is WORKING CLEAN. They say it's a very Zen-like thing. All your knives are clean, your cutting board, your workspace is clean and clear, even your mind is clear.

Working clean in the kitchen is paramount because unclean surfaces and food is dangerous and invites food-born illnesses. And along with working in a clean kitchen is the professionals’ mantra: “Clean as you go!” One professional chef I recently talked to about this said, “Isn't the worst thing at the end of a successful dinner party doing a whole bunch of dishes? Wouldn't you rather break them all and buy new ones? It actually saves time if you clean as you go. It makes life so much easier."

From there it is the simple idea of preparing as much as you can ahead of time. It can be as easy as washing and picking herbs into individual leaves or chopping vegetables. Or more complicated like caramelizing onions, cooking dried bean, or slow cooking meats.

In a nutshell, mise-en-place does two things for the cook:

1. Saves time during the week. By taking the time on weekends to do a little ‘mise en place’ preparation, you can make it much quicker and easier to get dinner on the table when youe come home from work late and everyone is hungry.

2. Prolongs the shelf life of produce. A little bit of preparation can extend the shelf life of fresh produce. This is usually because the preparation involves some sort of heat which reduces any microbes present.

Mise-en-place says that time, resources, and space is precious. Your self-respect and the respect of others are precious. Use them wisely. Isn't that a philosophy for our time?

"The world is a giant gerbil wheel right now," Lipuma at the CIA says. "I think if we just became a little bit more organized, a little bit more mise-en-place, and understand what we REALLY need to do and only do what we really need to do, we’d have more time" — time for what's important,” he says.