The importance of mise en place in cooking can't be overstated. Doesn't matter if you're at home or in a professional kitchen; having all your ingredients and equipment ready to go and within easy reach when you need them saves you so much time and stress when you're in the middle of juggling steps across multiple dishes. It'll probably save you from burning the chicken too.

That's what makes a yakumi pan like this one such an essential investment. It's a set of removable stainless steel compartments inside a larger, single-lidded tray. Each compartment can have a separate herb/seasoning/garnish/condiment/sauce (or other small ingredient) that you set up before cooking. When the time comes, you can just grab a pinch of something or take a whole container out and pour it all in. Easy peasy.

If the ingredients for a recipe need to be kept hot or cold, you can simply place the pan in a bath of ice or hot (bain-marie) water to handle that. (On the cold side, other options include setting the containers on ice packs or simply setting them in the fridge.) And when you're done cooking, all the pieces can go right in the dishwasher.

Get this 4-container yakumi pan for $78 on Amazon.