[Nicko]

Oh man have I had some real nasty ones. However the worst was not mine it was a friend of mine and to this day the thought still makes me sick. In one of the large stock pots that was anchored to the floor he was cooking beef for roast beef sandwiches. When they were done he a number of 5 gallon plastic buckets that he was using to put the juice into. He had full buckets of juice all around him and after he was done filling one of the last buckets he went to set it down and see if you can follow me. Holding the bucket in front of him he twisted his body, lifted his leg, and turned to step over the filled buckets around him. Instead of stepping over the bucket of juice he stepped right into one with his left food. ABSOLUTELY THE WORST BURN I HAVE EVER SEEN. By the time the got him to the emergency room he had massive third degree burns and they had to do skin graphs. When all was said and done he had over 250 staples in his left foot.

That is a real story, and to this day my friends foot still looks like ground beef.

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Thanks,

Nicko
ChefTalk Cafe Administrator
nicko@cheftalk.com
www.cheftalk.com "A food lover's link to professional chefs!"

[Chef David Simpson]

Ohh man, I fell lucky now. I think I've been injured only a couple of times. First time it was in school, no, actually it was both times in school. My girlfriend and I were having an argument, while I was chopping onions. And though I was yelling at her to leave me alone, I felt I was getting faster at chopping and as she was walking away, calling me every name in the book. I was chopping faster and faster. When it was over and she went back to her class, I was left felling bad that I yelled at her. So I stopped paying attention to what I was doing and all of the sudden, the tip of my pinky landed in the onion prep. OOOUUUCCCHHH!!!
And the other time was in my fourth semester class. I was assigned to skills development to show the new students around and teach them the ropes in the kitchen, like how to scrub the floor. Well, I know I wasn't dealing with genus, so I expected something to go wrong and it did. One student was told to scrub and the other to rinse. Well, I had my back turned and ankle boots on. Oh, the pain I felt at that moment. the doctor had to cut my boot off to keep from pulling any unecessary skin from coming off my feet. I spent two weeks in the hospital.

[m brown]

I am never leaving the house again...........
the worst story I ever heard, until this thread, a chef stepped into a pot of caramel.
silvadine burn cream is great stuff.
can't wait to use the prep h.




[This message has been edited by m brown (edited 11-28-2000).]

[Chef David Simpson]

m brown, how did the chef get his foot in the pot??

[This message has been edited by Chef David Simpson (edited 11-28-2000).]

[Isa]

When I was a kid, a French butcher came to our little suburb, he went to work at the local butcher shop. Soon after his arrival wonderful things started to appear at the counter. Pâté en croûte, bavette, charcuterie we had never heard of before. Among other thing he made a pistachio saucisson that was out of this world. Business was booming, this man was really educating people about meat and food in general.

A year or so past. The Frenchman was cutting meat with a electric saw, or some other sharp piece of equipment. The details are sketchy here. In any case, legend has it, he cut a few fingers, no one every knew for sure. He left for the hospital with his fingers in his coat jacket. He never went back to work at that shop. He just left the area. . That was the end of all those delicacy he had brought with him…

[m brown]

if I remember correctly, he got up on the counter to get something off a shelf?????? stepped right into it. YELP.


once I walked into a milk crate on the floor with 10# melted chocolate, needless to say, I was wearing it by the time I got my balance back. so was the rest of the room.
no boo boos, just a lot of mess.

I have one similar to Nicko's, except it was hot oil from a fryer. The guy slipped, dropped the cauldron, and stuck his leg into it halfway up his shin. Luckily, myself and two others were near and immediately got him out, got his pants off and started icing him down. Very nasty. I also saw a guy run an oyster knife completely through his hand at the same place. Ouchie!!!! I've only managed to run a ticket spindle through three of my fingers at the same time. (Don't ask.)

Well, everyone that has checked out the Safety and Sanitation board has heard my "thumb on the mandoline" story. (Knock on wood, but that's the first mishap in years) When I first started working in a kitchen I wore tennis shoes (double knotted to boot). I had a little Asian concoction on the stove (Garlic, ginger, sugar, soy and rice wine vinegar reduced in a pan with a not-so-flat bottom.) I accidentally hit the handle in a downward motion and flipped the whole mixture onto myself. ALL OF IT landed behind the tongue of my shoe onto my ankle/foot. (What do you call that part of your body anyway?) To make matters worse, I was working with a guy that happened to think that women are weaklings so when he asked me if I was alright (like an idiot) I tried to play tough guy and I left the goo on longer than I should have. By the time I got my **** shoe off I had a big fat burn about 3" in diameter. What nearly killed me though was when my bosses mother (who was a nurse and just happened to be visiting) made me sit with my whole foot in an ice bath for 15 minutes! AAAAHHHHH! God bless her though...she saved my foot. I will have the scar for the rest of my life as a reminder...be very, very careful.

[Nick.Shu]

hehe, whenever i go down country way, i stay with a guy who is a country butcher.

Anyhoo, we were switching knife dodgies stories and he told me a gem. What happened was he was supervising an apprentice butcher and sent him to break down a beef hindquarter. obviously, as everyone knows, butchers always slice towards themselves - especially hanging carcasses.

My mate walked away, and heard the apprentice grunt then go "jesus". He had just come to a end of slice and sent a 10 inch boning knife straight into his femoral artery.

My mate ran over crouched down and jammed his thumb into the hole.

Then the owner walked in and saw the whole scene and saw my mate crouching down near this apprentices crotch and said WTF?.

Anyway, the dude survived and Mate scored a case of beer for his trouble.

[shroomgirl]

OH man....

[Isa]

And chef is not even in the top 20 most dangerous jobs...

[theloggg]

A coworker was grinding meat in the hobart attachment and the bonehead (one word?) was pushing the meat down the hole with a bread knife....WITH THE HANDLE, HOLDING IT BY THE BLADE!!! He had no idea the grinder pulled down, then grinded. It jerked the knife down about 3/4 inch. I did not eat the meat that night. I ended up taking him to the ER for 10 stitches on 2 fingers.

[shroomgirl]

Some you can semi relate to and others just DUH comes to mind......protect small children and incompetants from sharp and hot instruments......the grapefruit knife incedent was a disarming.

[cookM]

Eeeeccchhhh! I'm having a hard time reading through these stories...
Today, someone was talking about how this cook started talking to him and then rested his hand on the flattop griddle. It was still hot. My co-worker said he had to pour water on the guy's hand (deglaze!!!) to get it off.

[momoreg]

YUK!!