What's yours?

Choice Cuts - Thirteen Chefs reveal the culinary battle scars they've receive in the line of duty

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... ef=opinion

I was never a Chef, but in the line of duty I blew up a French press filled with water from the espresso machine resulting in a third degree burn on my left forearm. (Warning. Do not use incorrectly sized coffee grounds in a press pot.)

Also, I broke my fibula while bartending. I couldn't work for a 6 weeks but went back to bartending in a walking cast.

War wounds?

With 30 years of this, I have my share of punctures, burns, breaks, scars etc,(I'll make a fine specimen for some med-students when I'm gone), but easily the worst thing I have EVER seen happened to a dude named Don that I worked with on a line in California. He was carmelizing sugar in a saute pan and it was just about golden brown when he spun around and caught it on a bottle rack. Trying to save it from the floor, he backed up and molten hot sugar sloshed all up his forearm. I can still hear him scream to this day, and 25 years later I think he is still on disability. Honorable mention goes to a dude grabbing the wrap off the top shelf and zipping every vein in his wrist with the razor-sharp cutting blade....20 hours of micro surgery!!

Not many (knock on wood). The first time I dropped my knife and tried to catch it was the last time. Sliced open my hand on that rookie maneuver.

Also during my rookie years, cooking a load of turkey breasts they asked me if they were done and i opened the door and just stuck my face right in there to see. I should have let the oven vent out a bit because the blast of heat almost knocked me over. I thought I burned my face.

Yet about a year ago, slicing ginger, the ginger root rolled over and I sliced off my ring finger nail like peeling a carrot. That one sucked. They re-attached it at Jewish Hand Center. That was kinda cool.

Off the top of my head:

- I don't know what it's called...the loose skin between you thumb and index finger...sliced it open with a steak knife down to the bone. ( I don't recommend doing this one. Ever . )

I just started working in a restaurant for the first time about a month ago & I've already manager to slice off the tip of my thumb.

My worst accident was also my luckiest.

I was checking out the kitchen at the end of the night. They had just done the floor and I slipped on a wet spot. In trying to catch myself, I plunged my arm into the fryer almost to the elbow. Luckily, the fryer had been off just long enough to not do any serious damage. In that moment it still freaked me the hell out.

Whew, Gary. That's fortunate. Your story made me immediately think of a guy I USE to work with in the kitchen. We'd drain the fryers at the end of the night and empty them into the bin/tank? Anyway, it took two people; one on each side to carry the pot out back. He was notorious for knotting two towels on each handle and carrying to the dumpster without help. We'd ALWAYS tell him " Ask someone. They will help." You can guess what happens next...One night he did it again and one of the towels or his grip slipped from the handle. Grease JUST emptied from the fryer poured onto his legs and the floor. It was a c*f*K. Pardon my language.

My worst accident was also my luckiest.

I was checking out the kitchen at the end of the night. They had just done the floor and I slipped on a wet spot. In trying to catch myself, I plunged my arm into the fryer almost to the elbow. Luckily, the fryer had been off just long enough to not do any serious damage. In that moment it still freaked me the hell out.

AHH!!!!

Canadian Workplace Safety Video... the kitchen. OMG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llQL9RM_KOo

Wow.

The Canadians really know how to drive a point home. Who knew?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUzRj07w ... re=related

Had the bright idea to use a screamingly sharp paring knife to try and separate some frozen salmon burgers, and at the moment of separation it jammed right into my hand at the base of the middle finger and right down to the bone. 3 deep stitches and I damaged the nerve controlling sensation to half of my ring finger - it is still numb along the left side. I no longer use sharp knives for that task.....

2nd worst would definitely be the one and only time I failed to completely wash my hands after making homemade hot sauce with Red Savina habaneros. I'll spare the details, but I consider it the worst trip to the bathroom EVER.

Gary- you made me gasp with that one. Reminds me of years ago when Hearthstone Tavern served fondue and a friend got horrible burns when hot oil was splilled all over him.

Many moons ago I was cleaning a wall behind a brand new deli slicer with out the guard on and sliced my left index finger bad enough to get seven stitches.
Sort of work related; A few years ago I sliced my left thumb open while I was trying to open a package of tie down straps while we were moving that required eight stitches. Knowing that I had to work that night, I was more pissed about the time I was going to lose in the hospital that I could have used to move stuff before I had to get to work. (These are the kinds things you worry about when you are working 80 hours a week) Of course, someone else called in and we were shorthanded on the line that night when out of the blue, every member decided to eat at the club. I wish I could punch that bastard Murphy right in the mouth sometimes!

I got a steam burn on my hand once and that is no small thing...

But the worst I've seen was this:

The only kitchen I truly worked in without FOH duties was at Ramsi's back in 1996. A cook (who, coincidentally, was the sweet young cousin of one of my childhood best friends) walked up the attic steps with a cookie jar and fell forward. For anyone with a frame of reference, this predated any expansion from the original dining space, but the storage area was vast, and beyond the expansion of storage space was the flight of stairs. The cookie jar broke, his arm was sliced bad, and he had to make it back to us to go to the hospital. Gruesome. I had to go back to the storage area and saw a big pool of blood where it seems he had to stop and figure out how to keep going. And there was blood smudged along the swinging doors.

Next day, I was walking to work from the Eastern Pkwy area and passed the car wash (across from Impellizeri's - recently torn down:-() and ran into the kitchen mgr (Will?) who was cleaning out Ramsi's passenger seat, which was caked in a thick and soapy orange foam all over from the blood on the way Jewish. Many surgeries later, Joey's (cookie jar boy) arm is doing alright.

***also - PLEASE don't let me watch that first Canadian Safety video EVER again!

My personal worst was 10 gallons of boiling water dumped down my backside. Laid flat on my stomach for 2 weeks and missed more than a month of work.

-We have a legend at Baxter about a line cook who impaled his hand on the ticket spike. I wasn't there for that one but the story makes its rounds to all the new cooks.