okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Monday, November 12, 2007
Mise en place
Somehow this quote - from a book on cooking - made me think of orienteering:
Literally "put in place," mise en place is the kitchen term for your setup, the gathering and preparation of all the tools and food you need to complete the task at hand....so critical to efficiency of action and the use of time, the term often carries broader connotations of being ready. Excellent mise represents the ultimate state of preparedness, whether the physical mise en place of food and tools or the mental mise en place ofbhaving thought a task through to the end and being ready for each step of it.
I guess the orienteering equivalent of mise en place is a sports bag with gear and the routine you go through before the start. We need a cool term for that.
I forgot to note the source of the quote, sorry. It is from Michael Ruhlman's book "The Elements of Cooking" (with an introduction by Anthony Bourdain).