Mise en Place (Meez-AHn-Plahs)

Mise en Place was one of the first terms I learned when I stepped into a kitchen.  It is a French term meaning "putting in place".  When things are slow, you put things where they need to be so that they are within reach when you need them.  You make assessments of what you are going to need and prep accordingly, hoping that you prepare enough so that you do not run out yet still not so much that food gets wasted at the end of the night.  When you walk in, you check with the host stand, see how many reservations are "on the books" and then you set about your job.  One of my first jobs was as garde mange (basically all of the cold items on the menu).  It is one of the least difficult yet most tricky jobs on the line.
When guests are seated for the dinner rush, you are the one who is hustling putting up salads and cheese plates, appetizers and amuses bouche.  You are the one in charge of making sure the guests meal starts correctly and you have essentially every table in the house.  It is often a separate area from the line for the practical reason that you really do not want lettuce and dressings near the grill or the flat top.  You are an island.  I happened to work in a restaurant where the garde manger was also dessert chef at night so once all the salads were out, I had nothing to do while entrees were plated, but I knew what was coming.
 This particular restaurant was in the theater district and we would often have people come in before a show.  There were always those guests who wanted to be seated at 7 and out so that they could make an 8 o'clock show.  When you paid attention, you could see little signs of what was happening in the dining room.  Entrees would go out and for 20 minutes not a single order would come into garde manger.  Still, you knew that when the bussers started to bring back plates that were stacked with chicken bones, that you would soon see dessert orders and the second rush of the garde manger would begin.  It was a little faster this time because people were slightly boozy and they wanted to get out of their and go see their show.
 It all works when you know what to expect and there may be a few terse moments when you are "in the weeds" but nothing you can't handle because you know where everything is.  Right now, we are putting everything else in place.  This is what it means to be a professional. The big events start in June and we have a responsibility.
We are meeting people who believe in this; people who know that this is the rush and that there are a lot of charities in need.  We are proud to announce that No Kid Hungry and Defenders for Children are going to be just two of the charities that we are supporting with many more to come.  Know that when you make reservations at one of our events that a minimum of 10% of the proceeds goes to a local charity.