Battle Scars of the kitchen - Page 2

I've done the hot pot off the stove into the ultilty sink forgetting the **** thing is hot and touching the handles thing before... definitely an OW moment!

grabbed a towel one day, it caught the tip of my straight edge carving knife. It spun around on the cutting board and stabbed me in the side with the point(3 stitches). I then reflexively reach down with my left hand to remove the stabby intruder of my side and cut my left ring finger wide open cause it had spun edge up (13 stitches), at that point I cooly and calmly remove the knife from my side by reaching across with my right hand and pulling it out by the handle. Oof Dah! What a morning. Spent the rest of the day at the clinic bleeding and waiting to get stitched up. was at work the next day with a glove on, someones gotta open.

Once I was cutting the netting off of a roast when the handle broke on the cheap *** scissors I was using(house equipment). The tip of one of the blades impaled my hand between two of the bones. In and out, I didn't feel it until the ER doc was pulling it out. The rest are from filleting accidents and peeler/mandolin mishaps on the left side and splatter burns on the right.

I once worked with a guy who had the worst kitchen scar I've ever seen. There was a dent in his forearm about 3" in diameter and almost to the bone in the center from some jerk horsing around with a wet towel around a deep fryer. He told me that he was in the hospital for almost a week with that one.

I jammed my ring finger right hand second knuckle....it swelled.....I taped it and kept working with it, went to dr. besides not using it there was little they could do. I let it rest when I could then after about 6 mos had an MRI to see if it showed anything....nope, just beginnings of arthiritist.....there's nothing like the fear that your dominate hand is out of commission (potentially forever).

Working a brunch, cold table lids were open under the pass as usual.
Put a plate up in a crowded window and then I thought I saw it tottering backwards, so I shot my hand forward to catch it only to jam the cold table lid between my ring and middle fingers, splitting the web wide open.
Furiously super glued it until i got a good seal, then finished service.
Took forever to heal as I had sealed it wide open.
Looked ghastly.

This is sort of on topic.

The first chef I ever worked for also did land clearing on the side (tree removal, etc). So in addition to working for him in the kitchen I helped him clear trees. I fed trees into a chipper in the morning, then worked the line at night.

Approaching a tree job one morning, my chef/boss points to a tree to take down. I follow him and he says that he's going to clear the brush out from under the tree first. He fires up his chainsaw, swings it to the left, then to the right - and right into my kneecap. He said he thought he hit a tree stump - it was me.

He looks at me wide-eyed. I look down at the 8"-10" hole in my jeans. There is blood on his face, my face, the trees ...everywhere.

We decide to go to the hospital.

The strange thing is, I felt no pain at all, not even a little. I saw bone, ground meat and a lot of blood. Maybe I was in shock - I don't know. He offers to stitch me up himself with his Army issue medical kit sice I have no health insurance. He calls his wife (that works at the local hospital) - I can hear the wife scream through the phone from about 10 feet away. The chef/boss says "my wife thinks we should go to the hospital". I don't remember how many stitches I had.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go to work that night. I lasted until about 9:00 and then the most excruciating soreness and pain set in. I had no pain killers. It was bad.

Every chef needs a good war story. When I'm in my rocking chair, telling my grandkids several "back in my day" stories, I'm sure this one will come up.

All my good scars happen outside of the kitchen. Oh well, maybe one day.

After more than 30yrs, and more injuries then I can count. The worst one I `ve seen ( besides the arm cought in the 40 qt. hobart mixer) happend to a soux chef of mine.
While emptying a double stacked convection oven of baraised pork ribs, and could not find a place on the table to set them down because of clutter, my dark skined chef tried to put them back in the oven, when the hot grease spilled onto his arm. Other employees came to tell me that "kevin is burned really bad". When I finally caught up with him, he was putting on a new, clean cooks shirt and heading back to his station.....90% of his arm was now whiter than mine!
After more than 15 days in the burn ward he returned to work, but was still ready and willing to finish his shift that day......NOW THATS ONE TOUGH INDIVIDUAL!!!

worst burn to date: at the very beginning of my career I naively believed that you had to endure pain to the enth degree and had to be uber respectful of those above you and their space. So once day I take a sheet pan out of the oven, do the whole "behind!" thing. Unfortunately the exec sous was too large to make himself smaller and I need to get past him. So I pressed the sheet pan against my arm and squeezed past. Later in the shift the sous looks and my arm and says "jesus did you burn yourself?!" I didn't think it was that bad. it didn't feel that bad, but it had bubbled up like a mofo and the scar is still there. The doctor said it would have faded within a few months.

When burns don't hurt, it's time to get worried. That means nerve damage, AKA, you cooked yourself a little.

I have so many I can't even count. Over 25 plus years tend to take it toll. I agree that most injuries are done because of carelessness or just to hurried. My biggest is the scar in the middle of my right hand due to put a ticket spindle through it and the tip of my right thumb is missing due to a run in with a faulty slicer.

I would like to address the 14 plus hour situtation. It sounds like someone is a bit out of touch. Unfortunately in this day and age, too many upper management are too scared to stand up to employees and discipline so those who actually do show up to work wind up working over.

I'm not sure who this is directed at, those who rail against the 14 hour day, or those that say it does happen, even if only occasionally.
Being scared has nothing to do with the scenario of someone doesn't show up, you can't cover multiple venues with one person, and having someone stay over to get through.
You can discipline the heck out of the person that fails you, but that will happen later, meanwhile everyone is pulling together to get through.

But you're right, what you described is one of the possible situations where this would occur, lack of discipline.

That was directed at m.d.hughes. He seems to be out of touch as to what the realities of the kitchen are. I have worked over 16 plus hours a few times in my life, including as EC. If it has to get done, it gets done and sometimes how many hours you worked in a particular day doesn't mean a darn thing.

I was dropping blini on to a flat top with a pastry bag when a dishwasher came by and bumped into me. The outside of my right hand (I'm right handed) went onto the flat top. I had a blister that popped up about 3/4" running from the base of my pinky down to my wrist. Crazy part though is that it didn't even scar. Worst one I've seen though is actually on my mother-in-law. She used to cook at a pizza place that had hardwired sheeters, meaning you can't unplug them. There was supposed to be a two-stage safety switch, but somehow it was bypassed and she hit the on button with her arm while cleaning the machine. Took her right arm through the machine up to the elbow, and then spun on her skin, ripping it off, before she could reach the off switch with her other hand. That was about five years ago. She still has the arm, has become left-handed, and only has about 10% feeling and 40% mobility. My short sweet little mother-in-law has a worse kitchen scar then the most hardcore cooks I've ever met, and I think that's hilarious.

I couldn't even imagine the pain she went through

Thing is, she said that between the shock and the nerve damage when it was happening, and the painkillers after the surgeries, she didn't have any pain to speak of until the physical therapist got hold of it.

My regular shift is 14 hours a day, it's almost all I've ever known.

In this business we do what we have to do to get it done. On Saturday we had no dishwashers so we pulled a cook from the kitchen as well as my daughter from the front of the house todo the dish. They got backed up pretty fast so the prep cook helped them out when they were in it deep. He had to leave early as he had childcare issues so as soon as I had my stuff done in the kitchen I went to the dish and helped them get it done. The result was an almost eleven hour day for me and when I was talking to the owners my answer was... someone had to do it and I knew Jim was in the weeds in the dish and I couldn't just walk away and leave someone with so much work to do... I've done the same thing in the kitchen.. there are days that I open and if they are in the thick of it come my time to leave I stick around and make sure things are good and then I go.

After reading about all the burns I am reminded of the one time I actually BURNT myself. I was an apprentice and doing a volunteer job at a very famous South Beach hotel for Meals on Wheels. The chef I was an apprentice for was doing a seared Salmon and I was incharge of searing the fish. Well we were in the weeds of course and I was dropping the Salmon in a VERY HOT pan with oil, the fish was wet and ofcourse hot oil and wet fish makes for oil spatter. The spatter was inbetween my middle and ring finger on my left hand. I quickly wipped it off and it blew up like a balloon. I finished my shift and went home where my room mates girl friend was a paramedic in training and she saw this as an opportunity to use good old me as a guinea pig. I foolishly let her drain the burn, cut the skin away and wash the area. About 3 days later after wearing powdered gloves at work for 10+ hours a day my finger turned black and I was sent to the hospital where I was lucky, they only had to flush, clean and scrub the finger, not remove it as I was told.

As a lefty I very quickly learned how to do EVERYTHING in a kitchen as a righty and now almost 20 years later still do.

Last friday i was searing a salmon, in the weeds, go to finish it in my oven, and in the process of moving the 18" to the oven dumped smoking hot oil all over my right hand, the whole backside of my hand went white instantly and lost all feeling.. 3 days later its a half balloon... Might have to go get that checked....

Ouch! I would definitely go and get that one checked out!

This is a different kind of burn I guess, but one time I was pouring habanero sauce into a pan and it splashed up and hit me right in the eye. Good times.

I had butter get me in the eye on the weekend.. it wasn't bad but it did smart for a few minutes. Seeing as I wear glasses I must have been in the right spot at the right time to get splashed.

In twenty years, the countless forearm scars, the fact that the entire tip of my left index finger is by now completely scar tissue, (lost is so many times) and the second degree burn that covered my whole chest from a pot of beans when I was 17, are all nothing compared to the friends I've had who lost their Wives, fell into drug or alcohol abuse, or even lost their life savings in this industry. sorry to be a debbie downer. -but I still love this work.

I know this industry is hard on people and it is easy to turn to drugs or alcohol to help with the stress. Personally I don't but I know of people out there who do and I am not here to judge anyone for the choices they make. My father owned a construction company and he drank like a fish because of the stress so I have seen and lived it firsthand.

As for battle scars... I did have a run in with a newly sharpened knife a couple of weeks ago and I'm happy to say that the cut has healed well. It was pretty deep and I think it went pretty close to the bone but I knew that it was not stitchable as I have done the same thing before so the owners taped me up and I finished my shift. They did a good taping job but I do think i hit a nerve because I have no feeling in part of that finger.

hello all, new to the forum....just wanted to share a battlescar from last night

I was cleaning up a bunch of beef tenderloins at school last night and after going through all 10 loins I look at the lexon and see a big chunk of white I missed. I threw it on the baord lopped it off haphazardly and managed to not only cut into my index finger but actually cut a good slice into the skin right under my nail too. blood and profanities soon followed. :)

oh Ouch! I did the same thing just a couple of weeks ago. I must say that the owners of the place I work at do a good taping job as my finger has healed up well.

Hope your cut heals well!

That's why knives and hurrying don't mix. I've learned, through many a bad cut, that it takes less time to be careful and take my time with a cut than it does to tape up/go get stitches.

That being said, I whacked a knuckle today with a peeler. I am now the proud owner of a dented thumb.:o

I learned to keep the tip of my chef knive on the cutting board, and to tuck my fingers in, and on top of whatever I was cutting.
Unfortunately, I'd been cooking a while before I learned this!:p

In this world of profession scars, burn and cut are expected. Profession that involves kitchen really need to know the technique just to avoid it. But some of us learn it from experience.

This is a honor scar...