Prep Lists & Mise en Place with AI
The prep list is the spine of a working kitchen. A good list at the start of the day means a smooth service; a bad or missing list means you're firing risotto base at 5:45pm. Most prep lists are still written by hand on a clipboard, redone by hand the next day, and the day after that — for years. AI can give you a 5-minute morning that produces a better list than the 20-minute morning you've been doing.
What You'll Learn
- How to build a reusable, station-by-station prep template
- A daily prep prompt that takes today's covers and produces today's list
- How to add par-level intelligence so you stop over- and under-prepping
- A prep handover format that survives a tired closer leaving notes for a fresh opener
Step 1: Build Your Station Templates
Each station's prep list is roughly the same dishes, week over week. The variables are: how many covers, which day, what specials, what's about to run out. The constants are: every garnish, sauce, stock, marinade, base, par bin.
Build a master template per station — once. Save it as a doc. This becomes the context every daily AI prep prompt uses.
Example pantry station master template:
Pantry station - master prep list
DAILY:
- Mignonette (8 oz batch lasts 2 services)
- Cocktail sauce (12 oz lasts 2 services)
- Caesar dressing (1 qt lasts 1 service at 80 covers)
- House vinaigrette (1 qt lasts 1.5 services)
- Cured citrus (3 each lemon/orange/grapefruit per service)
- Pickled shallot (lasts 4 services)
- Aioli base (1 qt lasts 2 services)
- Soft herbs picked (parsley, dill, chives, tarragon -- enough for service)
- Lettuce washed and spun
EVERY 2-3 DAYS:
- Chicken stock (4 qt batch)
- Vegetable stock (4 qt batch)
- Brown butter (1 qt)
- House crouton (yields 2 quarts, lasts 3 services)
WEEKLY:
- Pickled chanterelle (when on menu)
- Confit garlic
- Compound butter (logs portioned and labeled)
- Stock reduction (glace)
Capture this for every station: cold, hot, garde manger, pastry, etc.
Step 2: The Daily Prep Prompt
Now use this template plus today's specifics:
Act as my sous chef writing tomorrow's prep list.
Station templates: [paste your master templates for the relevant stations]
Tomorrow's context:
- Day: Saturday
- Forecasted covers: 145 (we typically book 80% at 6-8pm, 20% at 8-10pm)
- Two large parties on the books (10-top at 7, 8-top at 7:30)
- Specials running:
* Soup: corn chowder (Pastry will pull the corn off the cob 8am)
* Fish: King salmon, smoked corn puree, charred poblano, lime oil
- What's already in walk-in: 1 qt of chicken stock, 1.5 qt of vinaigrette,
a half-tray of confit garlic
- What's missing/empty per closing notes: out of mignonette, low on Caesar
Produce a station-by-station prep list for tomorrow with:
1. What to make first (priority order, accounting for what's already done)
2. Batch sizes adjusted for 145 covers
3. Estimated active prep time per item
4. A "first 90 minutes" focus block -- what one cook must finish before
anyone else arrives at 1pm
Output as a markdown table I can print and post on each station.
The output is a real, printable prep sheet for the day. You can tweak it in 60 seconds by hand if you spot something you'd do differently.
Step 3: Add Par-Level Intelligence
Pars (par levels — the standing baseline quantity you want on hand at any moment) are how you stop guessing batch sizes. AI can help you derive pars from your sales data.
Below are the last 60 days of sales for our 12 garnishes and bases
(quantity used per day, in grams). [paste data]
For each item, calculate:
1. Average daily usage
2. Standard deviation
3. Recommended par level = average + 1 standard deviation, rounded to a
batch-friendly number
4. Reorder/re-make trigger = par * 0.4
5. Days-on-hand-target for items with shelf life: average daily usage * 2.5
Output as a table.
This gives you a starting par sheet. Print it. Tape it inside the walk-in. Update quarterly.
The win: the next time a line cook says "we're getting low on aioli," everyone knows the trigger threshold and the batch size to make. No more eyeballing.
Step 4: The Handover Format
Most kitchen incidents trace back to a missing or unclear handover. The closing team is exhausted; the opening team comes in cold. Use AI to standardize the handover note.
Build a closing-notes form:
End-of-night handover — Saturday 12 May
Tomorrow's first cook arrives 1pm.
What's PREPPED and ready:
- [list with quantity and "good through" date]
What's PARTIALLY PREPPED:
- [item, what state it's in, what's left to do]
What's OUT or LOW (must make first thing):
- [item, current quantity vs par]
What FAILED tonight (we need to fix or re-do):
- [item, what went wrong, who can verify]
What's COMING IN tomorrow (deliveries expected):
- [supplier, expected arrival time, key items]
Specials for tomorrow (any changes from menu):
- [special, source, prep status]
86'd items / out of stock:
- [list]
Anything else for the morning crew:
- [free text]
Have your closing cook fill this in. The next morning, paste it into your AI prep prompt as today's context. The handover becomes input to a smarter list — and over time you have a clean record of how your kitchen actually runs.
Time Saved
Chefs who adopt this pattern typically report:
- Prep list time: from 20 min/morning to 5 min/morning
- Fewer "we ran out" incidents during service
- Better closing handovers (because the form forces specificity)
- A useful sales-data-driven par sheet they didn't have before
Cumulative: roughly 6-8 hours per week back to the chef de cuisine.
Key Takeaways
- Build station templates once — they're the context for every daily prep prompt
- The daily prep prompt takes today's covers, specials, and walk-in state to produce a printable list
- Use AI on your sales data to derive par levels — stop eyeballing batch sizes
- A standardized closing handover form becomes input to the next day's smarter prep list
- Expect to save 6-8 hours per week on prep planning alone