Peas what?

Well, it’s a play on words and alliteration (Thanks, Mrs. Sanford). Mise en place is a French word that is used in the culinary world as a description of the organization of equipment and/or ingredients used in food preparation or service. Having your items laid out and ready for use makes an efficient use of time and effort. I don’t always have a mise en place when I’m getting ready to cook, but it sure makes it easy if I were to take the time to do that preparation in advance. We even have a mise en place at Seastar Seattle, where I am a maitre d’. That area, for my purposes, has flatware, knives, plates, soy sauce, chopsticks, and trays for us to prepare guests’ tables and for the different courses. By having the items in the Front of the House, we don’t have to keep running back to the dish pit and risk crashing into a very busy chef. Convenient, ey?

My mom used to poke fun at me because I always had items arranged in their places, including my textbooks (arranged by class period order), my cds (arranged by singer then album), and my files (arranged alphabetically, how else?). Sometimes I organized by my intended use (baking items with baking items and ingredients) or by frequency of use (I have a special section in the front of my recipe binder for meals I cook more often). I have also attempted to organize the happy plan for my life (spouse, job, money), but that has proved a bit more difficult.

Well, that’s the origin of the name of the blog, and this is the blog dedicated just to the food and experience of food. I am enrolling in culinary school in April, and you’ll probably see lots of my learning turned into posts on this site.

Many of you readers probably followed me from my personal blog – jkschaub.blogspot.com, which includes plenty of family activity. This blog is dedicated to the food, the recipes, the bloopers, and the successes. I’ll probably also include some restaurant reviews, shopping guides, and other musings about the culture of food. Keep reading and enjoy!