Card No. 01
Knife Skills 101
Claw grip, rocking cut, and the four dices measured against a ruler. You leave with a sharpened knife and a bandage-free hand.
Est. 1998 · Portland, Maine
The curriculum is a tasting menu. Eighteen months, served in seven courses.
0seats per cohort
0service hours logged
0partner kitchens
0%placed within six months
Skills, by the tool
The knife roll you graduate with
Every competency in the diploma maps to a tool in the roll. You are issued all eight in week one; by month eighteen, each one is an argument you can win.
Issued — Week One
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Chef’s knifePrecision cuts
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Paring knifeDetail work
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Boning knifeButchery
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Honing steelEdge care
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WhiskEmulsions
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PeelerPrep speed
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Offset spatulaPâtisserie finish
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ThermometerTemperature
Hover a pocket — a sharpened tool always lifts out clean.
Faculty
Taught by a working brigade
Our kitchen runs on the classic hierarchy, and so does our teaching. One chef instructor sets the standard; five chefs de partie hold their stations and yours.
Chef Marguerite Alba
Chef Instructor
22 years on the pass · sets the standard
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Chef Tomas Ferreira
Saucier
Stocks, sauces, sautés
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Chef Aiko Tanabe
Pâtissier
Pastry, bread, sugar work
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Chef Danielle Okafor
Garde Manger
Cold kitchen, charcuterie
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Chef Luca Bennetti
Rôtisseur
Roast, grill, fire
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Chef Priya Nair
Poissonnier
Fish, shellfish, brine
“A brigade is not a ladder. It is a machine for never serving a bad plate.” — Chef Alba, orientation, every year
Short courses
One recipe card at a time
Open-enrollment sessions in the teaching kitchen. No diploma required, no spectators allowed — you cook everything you watch.
Card No. 02
Saturday Sauces
The five mother sauces in one morning, then one daughter sauce of your choosing. Bring containers; you will not want to pour these out.
$110Reserve a bench
Card No. 03
Bread in a Day
Straight dough to shaped loaf: mixing, folds, proof, score, steam. Long, floury, and worth it. Lunch from the deck oven included.
$140Reserve a bench
Card No. 04
Pasta by Hand
Egg dough by feel, not by scale. Roll, laminate, cut tagliatelle, fold two shapes, and finish everything in brown butter and sage.
$120Reserve a bench
Card No. 05
The Omelette Hour
One pan, three eggs, ninety minutes, as many attempts as it takes. The classic rolled French omelette is a test of nerve, not recipe.
Card No. 06
Plating Basics
Anchor, arc, height, restraint. We plate the same dish six ways and eat the evidence. Cameras welcome; garnish forests are not.
The method
We teach the plate before the dish
Every recipe at Mise begins as a diagram: where the food will sit before a single pan is lit. Students learn composition as a discipline — anchor, support, colour, line, restraint — then cook backwards from the picture.
“A plate is an argument. Make it once, make it clean.” Teaching Kitchen Rule No. 3
Admissions
Mise en place for your application
We read applications the way we run a station: everything in its place before the fire. Set out these six items, then send the whole tray at once. No culinary experience required — only evidence that you finish what you prep.
Begin the applicationMar 15Spring open house — tour the teaching kitchen, taste the capstone menu
May 01Application tray due for the September cohort
Jun 10Practical assessments & interviews, by appointment
Application — Prep List
0 of 6 prepped
Your station is not set. Keep prepping.