Lesson 4: Perfect Pasta!
You’ve worked very hard to get right to this spot and I’m very proud that you’ve made all these dishes and hope that you’ve enjoyed making and eating them.
Cool Cooking Term
Since today’s recipe’s a pretty long one, we’re just going to learn one cool thing and then get right to cooking. I’m going to teach you a cooking term professional cooks use every day; it’s called Mise en Place. It’s French for, “Let’s put everything in place before we start cooking.” Try saying it. It’s pronounced, “Meez ehn Plahhss.” Don’t you feel like a chef on TV? Try saying it again. Very impressive.
Okay, this is how we use Mise en Place. We use it to keep our cool in the kitchen; we use it to stay completely organized so that everything comes together at just the right moment when we are cooking, so that we don’t have to go crazy coo-coo nuts in the middle of making dinner, or worse, dessert!
I’m going to have you chop up an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and a green pepper before we start cooking. This is Mise en Place. Also, notice how I have you gather things before you start cooking in every class? That’s also Mise en Place. Instead of the word “gather,” I could put the words,Mise en Place.
