Session 4 — Mise en Place
← Block 1–2: Knife Skills & Kitchen Setup Overview
Skill: The real chef's secret. Tonight, before you turn on a single burner, prep everything first. Every ingredient chopped, measured, and arranged in small bowls or on the cutting board. Then cook. Notice how the experience changes — you're not scrambling, you're assembling.
Full Meal: Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli
Stir-fries punish you for skipping mise en place. The heat is too high and things move too fast. This recipe forces you to have everything ready before the pan gets hot.
No wok? The recipe is written for a wok, but a 12-inch cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet works fine. The key differences: get the pan completely smoking before anything goes in, cook beef in two or three very small batches (crowding kills the sear), and do the same with the broccoli. A wok handles everything in fewer passes because of its shape and heat distribution — a skillet needs more discipline about batch size to compensate.
| Component | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Protein | Thinly sliced flank steak, seared in very small batches |
| Veg | Broccoli florets, seared in the same pan |
| Starch | Steamed jasmine rice, started before you begin the stir-fry |
🎥 Compare Notes: Beef with Broccoli — This is the exact dish. Watch it before you cook. Notice how everything is prepped and staged before the wok gets hot — mise en place isn't a warm-up, it's the whole game in a stir-fry.