FREE THE PIZZA - How To Make Great Pizza In Your Home Oven
  • Home
  • About
    • Home Oven Pizza Book
    • Press
    • Work With Blaine
  • Pizza Memories
  • Free Sample
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
    • Modernist Pizza
    • Peter Reinhart's Detroit Pizza
    • Serhan's Ooni Pizza Ovens
  • Contact
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video
  • No-Knead Dough
  • Pizza Sauce For Heretics
  • Home
  • About
    • Home Oven Pizza Book
    • Press
    • Work With Blaine
  • Pizza Memories
  • Free Sample
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
    • Modernist Pizza
    • Peter Reinhart's Detroit Pizza
    • Serhan's Ooni Pizza Ovens
  • Contact
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video
  • No-Knead Dough
  • Pizza Sauce For Heretics

​Saturday Afternoon Pizza Posts 

Homemade Pizza Tips, Rants, Raves, News & Nonsense--All At Free The Pizza

For a free sample of the Free The Pizza book, click here

Free The Pizza says: Here's how to win the pizza-making mind game with a littleĀ mise en placeĀ and some useful psychobabble.

9/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Don’t hate me because it’s French. Mise en place is a phrase that’s used in kitchens around the world. Mise en place can change your game in more ways than you imagine. And as a bonus, mise en place also refers to something you never expected. It involves psychology and is going to mess with your head in a good way. I promise.
 
If you don’t know mise en place, here’s a rough phonetic pronunciation that will probably get me into trouble with my high-school French teacher (she was an American chauvinist for France who had no sense of humor and always wore double-knit slacks): you say it “meez on plass.” Or, as the pros say in pro kitchen slang, “Meez.” Like, “How’s your mis?” Or, “Is your mis ready?” Contrary to popular myth, it has nothing to do with Les Mis-erables.
Mise en place literally translates to “setting in place.” It’s about preparing your kitchen work space. All your ingredients and tools must be easily reachable. That way, when you cook, the things you require are ready and waiting at your fingertips.
 
I started thinking about mis en place because I’ve been making endless batches of NY-style pizza dough for the NY Pizza Project. (That’s the working title for the next book, which is about making New York style pizza. And yes, it really is possible using your home oven.) The test dough requires tweaking and experimentation, and has been a fascinating process.
 
But my mise en place has not been what it should be. When I’m actually baking pizza for a group, I have all the dough and the dozen or so toppings all lined up for the four or five pizzas I’m making. Also, all the tools are ready (peels, ladle, serving trays, pizza cutter, etc). If this doesn’t happen, I’m screwed. This is preparation so rigorous, a Boy Scout should be humbled by it.
 
But lately, with my New York dough, I’ve been a slacker. I’ve been working too much on the fly. So I’ve been making stupid mistakes, like using too little of an ingredient or forgetting another.
 
Because of this knucklehead paradigm, I’ve gone back to lining up everything I need before beginning work on the dough. That includes having all tools ready, and all ingredients measured and in bowls. (The measured flour goes into a big bowl and the measured water into a smaller bowl. The small measures like yeast and salt and sugar go into pinch bowls, which is enormously helpful and makes you feel like a pro, getting ‘em all mise en place.)
 
Going back to mise en place has been great for my head. And this leads to the psychobabble portion of today’s proceedings: psychologists use the expression mise en place in a way that is surprising but relevant.  
 
In psychology, mise en place is about setting the stage for thinking and taking action. It has been used in the context of learning environments. It could probably be applied to the workplace. I’m applying it to the kitchen.
 
And for someone who is making pizza, setting the stage is key. How you feel about a place affects how you feel about being able to work within that place.
 
I propose that physical mise en place prepares you for a psychological mise en place that lets you make a better pizza. The successes can range from something as simple as making pizza that’s actually round, to not making accidental calzones, to being able to sling half a dozen pies for friends in one evening in a strange kitchen without breaking a sweat.
 
Preparing the space physically is the first step to preparing your head mentally. When you own the kitchen psychologically, when you control it, you get to control how you perform within it. Having all your tools and ingredients where you need them gives you great liberty: it frees your mind to visualize how everything else is going to go.
 
I find that I usually start with a visualization of who’s coming to dinner. I see what they’re going to be eating and how I’m going to be serving it to them. Then I have a mental montage of the pizzas to come. And I can see myself making all those pizzas without having to think about it. They just come together quickly and easily.
 
One of the most common problems newbies describe is not being able to make a round pizza. I find that the most common problem with making a pizza round is overthinking it. Begin with the assumption that a pizza is going to be round. When you can visualize it, that goes a long way towards solving it.
 
After you stretch the dough and put it on the peel, it’s just not round. (Mine never are.) But all I do is rearrange the dough. Push it around until it forms a circle. Done! Yes, sometimes it’s rounder than others. It takes some practice. I still make the occasional amoeba. Usually, though, it’s a round pizza that’s slid into the oven with a bit too much energy. It gets a flat side after hitting up against the back wall. (Did that last night, in fact.) So what? You’re making pizza for people. It’s fresh, it’s tasty, it’s probably better than any pizza they’ve ever had, and even if it’s not, it’s better than any other pizza they could possibly get tonight. It’s FRESH!
 
Setting the stage with your tools and ingredients lets you set a stage for your head. And in a place like pizza, where your performance is everything, a place for everything and everything in its place is powerful.
 
Mis en place. It’s what’s for dinner—in your head. 

If you want to get your head wrapped more around pizza mind, check out www.FreeThePizzaBook.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Blaine Parker is the award-winning author of the bestselling, unusual and amusing how-to pizza book, Free The Pizza. Also known as The Pizza Geek and "Hey, Pizza Man!", Blaine is fanatical about the idea that true, pro-quality pizza can be made at home. His home. Your home. Anyone's home. After 20 years of honing his craft and making pizza in standard consumer ovens across the nation, he's sharing what he's learned with home cooks like you. Are you ready to pizza? 

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Calzone
    Aleppo Pepper
    Altoona Pizza
    American Pizza
    Anchovy
    Anchovy Pizza
    Andris Lagsdin
    Apizza
    April Fool
    Artisan Pizza
    Asian Fusion Pizza
    Authentic Pizza
    Award-winning Pizzerias
    Bacon Pizza
    Baking
    Baking Steel
    Bechamel
    Beginner's Pizza
    Beginning Pizzamaker
    Best Cheese For Pizza
    Best Pizza
    Best Pizza Lists
    Bianco
    Bianco Dinapoli
    Books
    Boring
    California Pizza
    California Pizza Kitchen
    Calzone
    Celebrity Chef
    Char
    Cheese
    Cheese Graters
    Cheese Pizza
    Cheese Snob
    Cheesesteak Recipe
    Cheesy Pizza
    Chef Victor Krone
    Chicago Style
    Chicken Pizza
    Chickpea Pizza
    Chilis
    Chopped Champion
    Chop Shop Park City
    Christmas Pizza
    Cilantro
    Clam Chowder Pizza
    Cooking Pizza
    Costco
    Courage
    Covid Pizza
    Cpk
    Creative Pizza
    Crushed Red Pepper
    Dan Richer
    Delivery
    Detroit Pizza
    Dianne Jacob
    Diastatic Malt
    Dough
    Duck
    Easy Homemade Bread
    Easy Homemade Pizza
    Easy Pizza
    Fake Meat
    Family
    Famous Pizzerias
    Fancy
    Fast Dough
    Fast Pizza
    Fear
    Fermentation
    Fire
    First Field
    Food Craving
    Food Snobbery
    Free Pizza
    Fresh Mozzarella
    Fruit On Pizza
    Garlic Pizza
    Gift Pizza
    Gluten Free
    Gluten Free Pizza
    Great Homemade Pizza
    Greek Pizza
    Hawaiian
    Hawaiian Pizza
    Healthy Pizza
    Historic Pizzerias
    Homemade Pizza
    Homemade Pizza Dough
    Homemade Pizza Sauce
    Home Oven Pizza
    Hometown Pizza
    Hot Dogs On Pizza
    Hot Pepper
    Hot Pepper Pizza
    How To Make Pizza
    Iconoclasm
    Imitation Pepperoni
    Indoor Pizza Oven
    Ingredients
    Inspired Pizza
    Inventing Pizza
    Italian Cooking
    James Madison
    Jersey Fresh
    Jersey Tomato Pie
    Joy Of Pizza
    Ken's Artisan Pizza
    Kinds Of Pizza
    Kitchen Safety
    Kitchen Scale
    Kneading Dough
    Koji
    Kristian Tapaninaho
    Launching Pizza
    Leftover Pizza Dough
    Legacy Pizzerias
    Life And Pizza
    Low Moisture Mozzarella
    Making Pizza Round
    Marcella Hazan
    Margherita
    Marinara
    Meatloaf
    Meatloaf Pizza
    Meat Pizza
    Mezzaluna
    Mise En Place
    Mississippi Pizza
    Mistakes
    Mobile Pizza Business
    Modernist Pizza
    Modernist Pizza Review
    Monster Pizza
    Mormon Pizza
    Mozzarella
    Naples
    Neapolitan
    Neapolitan Pizza
    Neo Neapolitan
    Neo-Neapolitan
    New England Pizza
    New Haven Pizza
    New Jersey Pizza
    New York Pizza
    No Knead
    No-knead Pizza Dough
    Obituary
    Onions
    Ooni
    Outdoor Pizza Oven
    Outrageous Pizza
    Oven Temp
    Paris
    Park City Pizza
    Parmesan
    Parmigiano Reggiano
    Patience
    Paulie Gee
    Pepperoni
    Pepperoni Pizza
    Peppers
    Peter Reinhart
    Pi Day
    Pineapple On Pizza
    Pizza Around The World
    Pizza Book
    Pizza Charity
    Pizza Cheese
    Pizza Christmas Gifts
    Pizza Classes
    Pizza Competition
    Pizza Cookbooks
    Pizza Crust Pot Pie
    Pizza Cutter
    Pizza-dough
    Pizza Dough Bread
    Pizza-fear
    Pizza-flour
    Pizza For Beginners
    Pizza-gifts
    Pizza-habits
    Pizza Hacks
    Pizza-hate
    Pizza Holiday Gifts
    Pizza-hut
    Pizza Improv
    Pizza Independents
    Pizza Inspiration
    Pizza-in-strange-places
    Pizza-joy
    Pizza-lust
    Pizza-margherita
    Pizza Marinara
    Pizza-marinara
    Pizza-memories
    Pizza Mistakes
    Pizza-mistakes
    Pizza Not Politics
    Pizza-oven
    Pizza Ovens
    Pizza-party
    Pizza-patience
    Pizza Peel
    Pizza-peeps
    Pizza-pi
    Pizza-pi-vi
    Pizza Politics
    Pizza Quest
    Pizza Questions
    Pizza Recipes
    Pizza Satire
    Pizza Sauce
    Pizza Secret
    Pizza Social
    Pizza Steel
    Pizza Stone
    Pizza Stuck
    Pizza Styles
    Pizza Think
    Pizza Today
    Pizza Tomatoes
    Pizza Toppings
    Pizza Trends
    Pizza University
    Pizzeria
    Pizzeria Sei
    Poetry
    Politics
    Portland Pizza
    Premium Ingredients
    Prep
    Prime Roots
    Proofing Dough
    Pulled Pork Pizza
    Recipes
    Refrigerator Pizza
    Reinhart
    Rocbox
    Rock & Roll
    Rolling Dough
    Rush
    Sandwiches
    San Marzano Tomatoes
    Sausage
    Scott's Pizza Tours
    Scott Wiener
    Secret Ingredient
    Secret Pizza
    Serhan Ayhan
    Settebello
    Shrimp Pizza
    Simple Pizza
    Slice Out Hunger
    Soup And Pizza
    Sourdough
    Sourdough Pizza
    Spicy Pizza
    Steel
    Stretching
    Stretching Pizza Dough
    Stromboli
    Styles Of Pizza
    Take-out Pizza
    Thanksgiving
    The Joy Of Pizza
    The Zen Of Pizza
    Time
    Timing
    Tips
    Tomatoes
    Tomato Pie
    Tools
    Too Wet
    Torn Dough
    Trenton Tomato Pie
    Tribecca Allie
    Vampires
    Vegetarian Pizza
    Virgin Islands
    VPN
    Weighing Ingredients
    Wet Dough
    Wet Pizza
    White Clam Pizza
    White Pizza
    Why Pizza
    Wine
    Wood
    Wood Fired Pizza
    Wood-fired Pizza
    Yeast

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
© Copyright 2021-2025. All rights reserved.
As a ShareASale Affiliate and an Amazon Associate, we earn a small percentage from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
When you click those links to Amazon (and a few other sites we work with), and you buy something, you are helping this website stay afloat, and you're helping us have many more glorious photographs of impressive ​pizza.