[foodpump]

Mmmm. lotsa scar tissue on my left hand and index knuckle. Had a 2nd degree burn on my left ankle waaay back in the 80's, emptying a pot of pasta and slipped on the floor. Worked a week before seeing the doctor, told me another 2 days and gangreene (sp?) would have set in. No burn scars though.

Lotsa burns on my forearms from the convection oven. Remember seeing the family doctor once for a regualr checkup and wanted to know if I was tortured or abused or something, I just looked at him and said "Oh, those? just burns from the oven, that's all". He looked at me like I just told him I bought the Eiffel tower for $10,000.

Cut off my left thumb just above the knuckle and have maybe 50% feeling in the index finger, but that was from a summer job on a construction site when I was 18, the summer I decided to become a cook instead....

Flat feet. Have to wear orthoitcs, that doesn't count. Had a nasty bought of "plantar facscitis" on both feet,--for 4 Years, Doctors told me to take a couple months off and sit on my butt--hard to do when you 0/0 your own business, suffered through that one for a long time until the time was ripe to sell th business.

[m.d.hughes]

You own you do everything you can to keep it afloat, and more power to you, but would as an owner ever expect an employee to work a 14 hour line shift, note line shift, not banquet?

[PeteMcCracken]

Originally Posted by m.d.hughes

You own you do everything you can to keep it afloat, and more power to you, but would as an owner ever expect an employee to work a 14 hour line shift, note line shift, not banquet?

No, I would NEVER expect an employee to work the hours I do for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that "I" can take a break whenever "I" decide to.

[Just Jim]

Originally Posted by m.d.hughes

You own you do everything you can to keep it afloat, and more power to you, but would as an owner ever expect an employee to work a 14 hour line shift, note line shift, not banquet?

Not an owner, so can't really say what I would do until I am actually in the position, but theoretically yes, there would be occasions where I would need an employee to pull a 14 hour line shift.
If there are no other options but have them do it or shut down, I am going to ask them to do it.
And I think 7 out of 10 times they would do it.
There are those that will never come through for you, no matter how many times you've come through for them, but most will.
If I can cover it myself, I will.
But if I can't physically be in two places at the same time, and last time I checked I was lacking in that skill set......

I don't see 8 hours as a magical number, nor 9, 10, etc.
Some can't work 2 hours without whining for a break, others can work dawn to dusk with nary a complaint.

[greyeaglem]

Chef How gets the purple heart so far. I used to work with a Viet Nam vet who had earned a purple heart. He said it was virtually worthless to him, so he brought it in to work and we'd take turns wearing it whenever we got hurt. You got to keep it until your injury healed or some klutz hurt themselves worse. Sometimes there would be arguments over who was hurt the worst, which led to my now oft repeated line "You ain't hurt, you're not even bleeding." They loved shoving it in my face when a frozen N.Y. strip loin fell out of the freezer and broke my foot. They were quick to point out that I wasn't really hurt as there was no blood, but they did allow me to have the heart. My worst injuries are a tie between cutting off the end of my middle finger on my left hand and a horrendous steam burn I had on the back of my hand from reaching into a steamer that hadn't shut off like it was supposed to. Literally cooked my hand. When you first work in a kitchen, every little burn drives you nuts. Now someone will say "Ow! what did you do to yourself?" and I'll look and see a burn I didn't know I had and tell them I don't know, I didn't notice it. I mentioned in an earlier thread how burning me seems to be the favorite pastime of my kitchen crew. Hot tongs on my arm, sheet pan on my arm, hot bacon grease down my shoe... I solved the hot stuff on my arm thing by wearing long sleeved chef coats so now it's just a grease spot on my coat instead of a permanent brand on my hide. Since burning me doesn't work any more, they've graduated to clocking me in the head with various doors. The award for that goes to our oldest waitress who kicked the diningroom door open while I was behind it putting away coffee cups. Had a knot on my head for three days. They say it's all accidents, but I sense a pattern here....

[JoJoBaltimore]

My worst was when a convection steamer went cahhhput on manual setting... it pretty much sprayed out steam when I opened the door on the top of my hand/wrist. instant blister the size of a small cell phone in that area.. It took about 2 weeks to heal over... Getting burnt with a sheet pan in the back of the head wasnt fun... waking around with a red line on the back on my head for a week, hehe

[greyeaglem]

This is how you know you should probably get out of this business: A few weeks ago I had an order for colossal shrimp and we didn't have any thawed. I was running water over and trying to hack some open as once they're butterflied, they cook fast. I'm hacking away with a santoku knife, saying to myself that if I keep this up I'm going to whack my finger, and then I did. To the bone. No adhesive tape for a butterfly stitch and I'm the only cook on, so put band aids on as tight as I can and a glove. Once the bleeding stops, glue it shut with crazy glue. Someone asked me later if I needed stitches. I said I probably did, but the only point in that is to stop the bleeding which the glue took care of, so I guess I don't need stitches any more. One of the guys said this was the first job he worked where you didn't get to leave because you were bleeding. I asked what kind of wimpy job they let you go home for just because you're bleeding, and he said construction. They'd get to go to the E-room and then home. What a bunch of wimps! They get paid about 3X what we do too. We're in the wrong business!

[bohmike]

Oh I have a few.

I love how missing fingertips grow back in place. Covered a rag in blood last Sunday after cutting the tip of my left index off.

A few years back, I was working at a pizza place. Tired, after a long shift I was cleaning the dough sheeter with steel wool, and a strand got caught in the gears. Tired, obviously not thinking, I wraped in around one of my fingers and whacked the strand with tongs.

Just a few to mention.

[bughut]

I've got a perfect 2" triangle (from trying to salt a foccaccia while still in the oven) Its 2 years old n only just fading. Just beside it a 2" slash burn, I now have a tan, which makes it stand out.

Got an impressive scar on my left instep. Went to pick tomatoes from the kitchen greenhouse years ago. It had blown down in the high winds the night before. Stepped on a shard of glass. Didnt even feel it. First i knew, someone was moaning about my bloody footprints across the kitchen
old school chef thought he'd like to try stitching it himself. luckily i hitched a lift to A&E

[lentil]

It's been awhile since I really got cut, but my son has a nasty burn up the back of his calf where his chef shut the even door on his leg. I can't quite figure out how his leg got in there, and I'm not even going to try.

[leeniek]

Originally Posted by m.d.hughes

We all have them and if we thought about it carefully we would all admit that they where caused by carelessness or in-attention in fact when I fill in the W.C.B. claim forms under reason for incident (not accident anymore) I usually write Stupidity.

I had to laugh out loud at this one and I have to say it's true in a lot of cases!!

[leeniek]

I've cut myself a few times but the one that stands out is when I had a filter basket of coffee fall onto my hand mid-brew. That was bad! At first I didn't realize what I had done and I started to clean up the mess when my manager told me to get that under water and then did it ever blister up. It took a good couple of weeks to heal and I did have a scar there for a while but it's long gone now.

[pembroke]

• asked to borrow a pairing knife, took it out of fellow chefs hand, they didn't let go-stitches
• slicing an onion when 18, sliced up one side and then down the other, caught membrane on onion-stitches
• slicing standing prime rib, customer wants it wafer thin, did my best-stitches
• lighting gas BBQ, threw flame on top of grill nothing happened, bent down to have a look, boom- burn cream on face
• picked-up hot pan with wet towel-burn cream
• deep fried calamari for the first time- burn cream

All when I was young and learning the trade!

[leeniek]

I should have known better but I have a stupidity related burn. Last Wednesday was Remembrance Day and well we forgot or didn't consider it when we did the schedule (and the KM and I did it together..ack!) so needless to say we were slammed and had to have the owner come help us.

In the thick of the stuff I was making multiple tuna melts and I had slopped a bit onto the grill (which is set at 375F) so some stupid part of me thought it was fine to pick the tuna up with my bare hand and put it back. Well what resulted was a small burn but it was bad enough that I couldn't handle being in the kitchen without my fingers on ice (I did the ring and pinky fingers) so I spent the rest of the rush with my fingers in and out of ice slush and when things slowed down i spent the rest of my shift with my fingers on ice telling people what to do!

[Just Jim]

Don't have a permanent scar so I didn't post this earlier, but with the mentionof burn cream.....

It took me a couple of times to learn this, but I have grabbed the handle of a saute pan I had recently pulled from the oven.
Busy night, pans going in, out, shuffling around, forget I had just finished that dish in the oven, then YEOWCH!
Nice red, handle-shaped burn mark on the palm of the hand, finger tips red and tender.
Funnier seeing the hole in the handle print, a little circle of unburned flesh.

As I said, took me a couple of times before I started placing these pans with the handles facing away to remove the temptation.