Spotting Value, Spotting Waste ◾ 25
This is true except for one spot: the chef’s “mise-en-place,”
the area where the chef organizes and arranges the ingre-
dients he or she will be using that night. Chef and author
Anthony Bourdain explained the importance of mise-en-place
in Kitchen Confidential:
Mise-en-place is the religion of all good line cooks.
Do not f**k with a line cook’s “meez”—meaning
their set-up, their carefully arranged supplies of sea
salt, rough-cracked pepper, softened butter, cook-
ing oil, wine, back-ups and so on. As a cook, your
station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an
extension of your nervous system—and it is pro-
foundly upsetting if another cook or, God forbid, a
waiter—disturbs your precisely and care ...