To prepare is to get food ready for cooking or serving: washing, peeling, chopping, boning, marinating, and all the preliminary work grouped as mise en place. It is the unglamorous foundation of good cooking, since even cooking, proper seasoning, and smooth service all depend on thorough preparation. In professional kitchens, preparation is a distinct production phase with its own staff, equipment, and food safety controls: separate boards and knives for raw and cooked foods, temperature control for prepared ingredients, and labelling with use-by times. The verb also covers the broader sense of making something ready, from preparing a menu to preparing a production line. Culinary wisdom holds that preparation is most of cooking: the actual application of heat is brief, while the washing, cutting, and organising determine the result.