Think like a chef this Thanksgiving and trade the chaos for calm. With a bit of prep and this pro-directed timeline, you’ll actually get to sit down, take a drink, and enjoy the feast you worked so hard for.

When I worked in restaurant kitchens, I lived and died by my prep list. I didn’t show up to service without a plan—down to which size deli container my mise en place would live in. In culinary school, one of my instructors wouldn’t even let us enter the kitchen unless we had a handwritten timeline laid out on index cards. “You can’t plate a dish if you can’t plan it,” she’d bark.

At the time, it felt a little…extra. But now, every year when Thanksgiving rolls around, I realize she was right. The secret to an easy, impressive, actually enjoyable Thanksgiving isn’t a secret ingredient—it’s a prep timeline.…