Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MISE EN PLACE
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From French kitchens comes the term mise en place. It means "put in place: readiness, preparedness, preparation, having everything in place and ready to go," a beautiful term for an excellent habit.
You might even think of it as a principle, a way of being, both physically and mentally. Dan Charnas does. He elevates mise en place to a philosophy in Work Clean, defining it like this:
"In the kitchen mise-en-place means to gather and arrange the ingredients and tools needed for cooking. But for many culinary professionals, the phrase connotes something deeper. Mise-en-place is a tradition of focus and discipline, a method of working and being. Many cooks call it a way of life."
The "mise" in mise en place means "a putting, or a placing," and it ultimately comes from the Latin mittere, "to put, to place, to send, to release." See if you can recall these other words that also trace back to mittere:
1. _mit (to put out)
2. un__mit____ (continuing without stopping, or literally, "not sending back")
3. _mis_____ (safe to leave out because it's not necessary, or literally, "able to be put aside")
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"MISE EN PLACE"
French for "a putting into place," the term "mise en place" is used most often to talk about cooking. It means the act or process of putting everything in place before you cook.
More generally, "mise en place" means the idea, habit, or process of having everything in place, ready to be used.
Pronunciation:
MEEZE on PLOSS
Part of speech:
Noun, usually the uncountable kind: "their mise en place," "she emphasizes mise en place."
Other forms:
none
How to use it:
Some writers put this term in italics to emphasize its foreignness: "mise en place." And some writers prefer hyphens to mark the idea more clearly as a single unit of meaning: "mise-en-place." I do neither. You do you.
Talk about someone's mise en place, or the mise en place of some area (like a kitchen, a bathroom vanity, a classroom, or an archeological dig site) or some process (like cooking, applying makeup, teaching, learning, or digging for artifacts).
Or, talk about learning mise en place, practicing mise en place, neglecting mise en place, etc. Or talk about a need for mise en place, the habit of mise en place, the benefits of mise en place, not enough mise en place, too much mise en place, and so on.
And while mise en place most often involves literal tools and materials, it could involve figurative ones. For example, your mise en place could consist of ordering your goals and other thoughts before entering an important conversation. And we'll see an example below about an author's mise en place that consists of ordering characters and stories into a mythology before writing a novel.
examples:
"The closing waiters rely on the opening mise en place, and the opening waiters depend on the closing responsibilities having been carried out the night before."
— The Culinary Institute of America, Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, 2009
"All of Camus's characters are 'bright with myth.' ... I see here the will of the author to raise to the loftiness of myth those fables which he relates. It is the realism of detail, the humor, which bear up this kind of universe and bring off the mise en place."
— Michel Mohrt, as translated by Warren Ramsey, Yale French Studies, 1948
has this page helped you understand "mise en place"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "mise en place" without saying "meticulous preparation" or "getting all your ducks in a row."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "After my mise en place is complete, with _____ neatly laid out, I _____."
Example: "After our mise en place is complete, with tools and supplies neatly laid out, we pry off the old quarter-round and lay the new tiles."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month is Distinctive Definitions.
We're taking a scenic slog through poetic and philosophical definitions, wading through similes, metaphors, personifications, hyperboles, grandiloquence, and cheesiness.
In each issue, consider a definition provided by a poet, a writer, or a philosopher, and see if you can name the definiendum: the thing or concept being defined. (Is it life, love, time, death, music, sleep, pain, laughter, bubblegum, stubbing your toe…???) For example, James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) said, "What men call ________ and the Gods call dross." He’s defining something—what is it? "Treasure."
Now, you can play this game in earnest, trying to think of what the poet actually wrote--or you can play it for laughs, supplying the silliest or most sarcastic answer you can muster.
To take the silliness to the next level, gather your friends or family, deal each person a hand of cards from your copy of Apples to Apples (great for kids) or Cards Against Humanity (not for kids!!), and enjoy the ensuing hilarity. (In these games, players take turns being the judge for each round, picking the funniest from everyone’s submissions.) "What men call stretch limos and the Gods call dross." "What men call Morgan Freeman's voice and the Gods call dross."
From the previous issue:
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854) said, "Since it is music in space, as it were a frozen music... If _____ in general is frozen music."
Answer: Architecture.
Try this one today:
Diogenes Laërtius (3rd century AD) said, "Solon used to say… that _____ were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off."
review this word:
1. The opposite of MISE EN PLACE is
A. DISARRAY.
B. SPECTACLE.
C. GENEROSITY.
2. Thinking of what to call the placemat at the center of the table, the one that _____, Chad suggested "mise-en-place."
A. takes up less space than a true "runner"
B. keeps salt, pepper, napkins, and Tabasco sauce at the ready
C. disappears under a jumble of bills, keys, coupons, and medicines
a final word:
Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From Liesl's blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
From French kitchens comes the term mise en place. It means "put in place: readiness, preparedness, preparation, having everything in place and ready to go," a beautiful term for an excellent habit.
"MISE EN PLACE" French for "a putting into place," the term "mise en place" is used most often to talk about cooking. It means the act or process of putting everything in place before you cook.
"The closing waiters rely on the opening mise en place, and the opening waiters depend on the closing responsibilities having been carried out the night before."
Explain the meaning of "mise en place" without saying "meticulous preparation" or "getting all your ducks in a row."
Fill in the blanks: "After my mise en place is complete, with _____ neatly laid out, I _____."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. The opposite of MISE EN PLACE is
Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |