I think it’s a US Marine thing (or maybe just military in general): The Seven P’s
Proper
Prior
Preparation
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance
I’m about as far from a military mindset as one can get, but truth is truth.
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I was in the Air Force, but I first remember hearing that on Top Chef.
Top Chef Season 15 Episode 2, I think from Adrienne.
“Smile and Say Mise”
" * Liked getting to know Adrienne a little better this episode. Her mom’s quote “proper preparation prevents piss poor performance” are words to live by."
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I heard it on ‘Forged in Fire’
(Top Chef, but for bladesmiths. Unsurprisingly, a LOT of veterans and service members are into it)
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I have heard it all my life. I am 74 and third generation Navy.
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Words to live by.
I remember my dad saying ( probably not what he actually said; I’m almost 64, so there’s that )
“Eat, eat, eat! Every day you want to eat”!
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Since it’s the season! Earlier month.
Mise en place for a service, all the things you need for the night’s menu, all prepped by some new guy learning the trade, is a joy. 4x4 and 6x4 pans of brunoise onions, shallots, flat leaf parsley, lemon wedges, demi, and so on flanked by bowls of spices, good old Diamond crystal, pepper, herbs, and spices, and opened wines and cream, a tub of butter in chunks, and on a nearby burner all the stock and fumet you might need, along with piles of pans and someone else to wash them, and any other things you ask the prep cooks to prepare. Someone else to worry about salads, vegetables, etc. Why can’t entertaining be like that? It can. You just play all of the roles! Charlie is sooooo right. Regardless of what Bourdain’s books say, you cannot do that unless you are (more or less) sober.
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Me, too. But I spent a short time in close working proximity with some active military folks, and they were totally on point. It was a pleasure.
God rest his soul, and I loved his books, but the over-the-top tales of over-the-top behavior got a little old - and certainly were at odds with what I knew as successful examples of sustained craft mastery. In any field. Including those more inclined towards the arts.
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Nailed it. That’s how you make it look “effortless.”
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Mise soothes my brain. I actually do crack open a bottle of champagne while I’m prepping, but I don’t guzzle it in fifteen minutes, either. Whoever is around to help gets to taste the best bottle that’ll be opened that night – the one I open for myself. Our dogwalker, who pitches in frequently, has had the luck of tasting some pretty damn good bottles.
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Bourdain cooked the same food at Les Halles as he’d learned to cook at CIA. Makes cooking high doable.
As old as I am, I could probably walk into a kitchen and with a halfway decent team produce the Les Halles menu of its last few years and do it without a hitch. Delicious, classic food, but if you were trained in that era you’d done it all a kajillion times. This is not to minimize the importance of that cuisine. Ever.
The most important job would be sourcing the best ingredients for essentially simple dishes. Lousy ingredients and a classic bistro menu = a ton of disappointed customers.
Back then (in the U.S.) if you made a veloute’ with a double vegetable stock instead of white chicken stock you were considered a culinary pioneer – stuff that had been happening in France for the last 150+ years. It was a time and a place. I exaggerate, but only a little.
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re the 7 Ps, in addition to the physical preparedness of product and workspace, I have found that mental rehearsal plays an enormous part in my kitchen success. Visualizing and integrating each process makes the final production familiar and comfortable. Including what pots, pans and later glasses, plates and bowls. When show time comes, you automatically have ready and reach for what you have already decided on.
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Love this. When I get started at home the kitchen is completely tidy, dishwasher empty, no crap anywhere. We have a nice place by Manhattan standards but it’s still not huge. You have to keep it lean and spare.
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Got any favorite Champagnes? I love good Champagne. I also have discovered an inexpensive Oregon sparkler I love, Sokol Blosser Bluebird. I love nursing a bottle while I prep and cook. As it warms a bit it tastes better and better. It is mandatory for shrimp and grits because it is part of my recipe and gets served with the dish.
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I hear you on doing those meals a kajillion times. I still remember my first BB. I made it in the amazing kitchen of Tom Guernsey, my “big brother” in school and Alice Waters’ partner in Chez Panisse. It was also my first chance to cook on a great high BTU gas range with a bunch of French pans, an herb garden outside the kitchen door, and boxes of wonderful wine everywhere.
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Any sparkling wine from Gruet gets a thumbs up from me for inexpensive sparklers done in méthode Champenoise. They’re a New Mexico offshoot of a French champagne house/family. A colleague of mine from New Mexico raved about them a long time ago, so I took his advice!
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I’ve always loved Laurent-Perrier in various iterations. Not the most expensive, but one you don’t mind opening. I have a lot of others. Armand De Brignac Blanc de Blanc is one for a special night.
I had a little L-P this morning with an omelette.
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Heaven on Earth.
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