What à la minute means
À la minute is French for “at the minute”, and in kitchens it means cooking something at the last possible moment, usually once it has been ordered. The opposite approach is to cook food ahead, then hold it hot or reheat it during service. Many foods suffer when they wait, so chefs cook them à la minute to keep them at their best.
Seared fish, scallops, steaks, omelettes, risotto finished from a part-cooked base, fried foods and delicate butter sauces are typical examples. To make this possible in a busy restaurant, cooks rely on thorough mise en place, with everything chopped, measured and ready, so that the final cooking takes only moments. The term also turns up in home cooking and recipe writing, where it signals that a step should be left until just before serving.
A recipe might tell you to dress a salad à la minute so the leaves do not wilt, or to make a pan sauce à la minute while the meat rests. On menus, the phrase is sometimes used to reassure diners that food is freshly cooked. It is easy to confuse with à la carte, but they describe different things, as à la carte is about ordering and à la minute is about timing.