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Actually, captkirk, that reminds me of what I wanted to ask the thread: What's the dumbest, most lightweight, nay trivial injury you've seen in a kitchen or your careers? I'm not talking about the dumbest ones. I'm talking about the most inane ones that still had to be addressed. My former reigning champion was 'cut myself on a baguette's crusty ridge, through the plastic wrap while smoothing the wrap down after service'. Drew blood, had to change gloves/wrap etc, papercut by bread. Story later, formal events to get to now. Any other good ones?
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Jan 25, 2020 22:33
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Cutting myself on plastic wrap teeth. Stabbing myself on frayed metal mesh.
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Jan 25, 2020 22:37
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Tezcatlipoca posted:Cutting myself on plastic wrap teeth. Stabbing myself on frayed metal mesh. The teeth on the plastic wrap boxes are eeeevil. Dumbest self-inflicted wounds include: -Breaking a rib by slipping and falling onto the corner of a table because I was wearing only sneakers, not kitchen work shoes. -Slicing my thumb open by using a mandolin slicer as fast as possible on some shallots -Getting second degree burns on my toes because I splashed boiling water onto my shoes and was unwilling to risk stopping mid-process out of fear if I didn't I'd be stuck in the kitchen an extra hour that night. Twice.
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Jan 25, 2020 22:49
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I cut my thumb a couple times a year on the foil of wine bottles. Specifically sequoia grove bottles. I don't know why, but it's the only bottle I do it with.
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Jan 25, 2020 22:56
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A filament of steel wool going through my thumb while scrubbing pots
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Jan 25, 2020 23:05
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captkirk posted:what's the dumbest thing y'all professionals have done in the kitchen that you knew was dumb in the moment? Kicked the back door open while carrying a pot full of two fryers worth of hot oil.
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Jan 25, 2020 23:06
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TheParadigm posted:Actually, captkirk, that reminds me of what I wanted to ask the thread: I cut myself on ice cream. Someone set the dessert freezer to max (-25c) instead of the -16 we usually keep it, went to scoop it and slipped, catching my knuckle. Tiny little cut but still. Also, the dumbest thing I've done was flipping a seabass like a pancake instead of just going to the KP area and grabbing a clean fish slice. Flipped perfectly but splashed oil onto my hand as it landed resulting in a nice burn. Edit: The burn 24h after. 
Raikiri fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 25, 2020 23:55
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Also have cut myself on Junipero gin foil, twice in one week. And have wrapped steel wool around my finger cleaning bar tools as well. Nasty little cuts for what they were. The door of the ice machine fell closed and hit me on the head, didn’t hurt, but I was very confused and thought somebody snuck up on me and smacked me
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Jan 26, 2020 00:26
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A guy I know that's been in the industry for 15+ years now managed to hit himself in the eye with a champagne cork at one point. He'd already been in the industry for at least 5 years at that point.
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Jan 26, 2020 00:28
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For injuries that were utterly trivial: stepping on a stray bit of discarded onion near a prep-station while carrying a tray, and converting the fall into a power slide. And doing my best to hide how much my knees hurt the rest of the day after using them to catch my fall.
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Jan 26, 2020 00:41
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Worst dumb one for me I can think of was reaching into a deep well cooler for a beer and finding a broken beer bottle with the neck snapped off, leaving a spike of glass pointing up. It was directly into the pad of my index finger almost up to the knuckle. Barely felt it but had to stop bartending for the night since it would not stop bleeding, through bandages, liquid bandages, and a finger cot.
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Jan 26, 2020 00:51
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Doom Rooster posted:The only thing I can think of that y'all didn't prep me for is an attitude thing super specific to me/the industry I came from, so wouldn't have expected you to cover it. From the tech industry, process is process. Except in startups, literally everything, every detail, has an EXACT way it is supposed to be done. I kept asking stuff like "After I have portioned these bags of brisket, what should I put them in?, and where on the wok shelf should they go?" thinking like "Half hotel pan, far right side of the shelf" and the answer was actually "Whatever pan they fit nicely in, and anywhere there is room on the shelf". I kept/keep looking for ultra-precise directions, when to some extent I should be figuring it out and making something work. To be fair, this can vary a lot depending on the kitchen. I'm sure they appreciate that you want to do it the right way and it sounds like you're picking up on their culture pretty quickly.
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Jan 26, 2020 01:52
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I was wiping a cognac snifter with a cloth while I was also angrily arguing with someone and I broke it into many pieces, some of which decided to slice a real gnarly piece of the tip of my ring finger clean off. Glued it back on, but holy gently caress did it hurt after shock wore off.
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Jan 26, 2020 03:51
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TheParadigm posted:Actually, captkirk, that reminds me of what I wanted to ask the thread: Burned my arm on the metal grid protecting a heat lamp over expo. Twice. In five minutes. As for my most fun injury... One of the things I made daily at the bakery was caramel pecan cinnamon rolls. This involved a honey/brown sugar smear in the bottom of a hotel pan, followed by pecans, followed by cinnamon rolls. Bake off, cover with a sheet pan lined with parchment, and flip. The newspaper delivery got thrown at the door one night in the middle of the 'flip' step and I looked away. Splashed molten caramel on my wrist just below the sleeve of my jacket. Immediately set the finished rolls down, turned, and stuck my arm in the dish sink. Did you know that when you take caramel off a really good burn the skin comes with? 
Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 26, 2020 04:20
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Shabadu posted:I was wiping a cognac snifter with a cloth while I was also angrily arguing with someone and I broke it into many pieces, some of which decided to slice a real gnarly piece of the tip of my ring finger clean off. Glued it back on, but holy gently caress did it hurt after shock wore off. One of our bartenders was polishing a champagne glass and torqued it and broke the stem. He managed to stab himself in both wrists with either end of the jagged stem.
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Jan 26, 2020 05:23
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Quabzor posted:One of our bartenders was polishing a champagne glass and torqued it and broke the stem. He managed to stab himself in both wrists with either end of the jagged stem. Your bartender was the new Messiah, he faked the broken glass to hide the stigmata
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Jan 26, 2020 06:14
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i scraped my knuckles open on a loaf of ciabatta once.
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Jan 26, 2020 06:16
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For dumbest personal injury, I once cut my hand open while unscrewing a plastic jar of relish. Still don't know how I pulled that one. For dumbest injury I wasn't responsible for, I once had a coworker drop a pair of metal tongs into a deep fryer, fish them out with a second pair of tongs, and then try to grab the first pair with his bare hand.
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Jan 26, 2020 06:32
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This has all made me feel a little better about sticking my finger into a pan of molten sugar (it also helps that the searing pain has gone away and just left me with a cute dime sized blister on the tip of the finger I stuck in the caramel and a regular old first degree burn on my hand when I wiped the caramel off my finger with my other hand).Liquid Communism posted:Burned my arm on the metal grid protecting a heat lamp over expo. Twice. In five minutes. The closest thing I've ever done to the food industry is volunteering with a youth group at a college concession stand (stadium fills concession stands with non-profits, gives the non-profits a cut of the proceeds and skimps on labor costs). The worst was when we covered the wrestling tournaments because they had ice cream by the scoop in dishes and I would burn myself repeatedly on the heat lamp that was set up to help soften the ice cream. I'd end the day with a chain of burns and singed hair going down my arm.
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Jan 26, 2020 06:40
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Thanks to the many, many oven/tray burns I've taken working in a biscuit place and then as queen pizza bitch at another joint, I have numerous scar lines up my forearms which I endearingly call my tiger stripes. But the stupidest, most blood-gushing injuries? The loving teeth on the industrial rolls of foil. I'd be rushing to put a catering order out and foil-wrapping everything in a frenzy and whack my finger on the edge. Because it's a nick that doesn't hurt, you don't really notice right off the bat, you get a minute in and go, "oh hey I'm bleeding everywhere!" This why it's always good to be on friendly terms with your FOH, because in my experience, a kind server/runner will fetch you a band-aid when you're bleeding and BOH is swamped and legit can't take time to deal with your poo poo. JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 26, 2020 07:12
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Coasterphreak posted:Grats! Literally the best thing about being able to cook is you will always, always, ALWAYS be able to find work somewhere. Ehh... not sure I'm gonna get it. Waiting on a callback and don't expect it over the weekend. Not sure I expect it at all. Gonna hit the bricks and try and get a few more prospects monday. I think having class tues-thurs is making a lot of places not even give me the time of day. It's also frustrating having restaurant experience that I can't claim because it was before I transitioned and I'm completely unwilling to out myself. 
Resting Lich Face fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 26, 2020 07:56
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My stupidest injury was the day after the company Christmas party, I had to open. I was hungover and half asleep, saw someone had left a dirty knife in the silverware and went to clean it. It was in a leather sheath and had been sitting in water overnight. I got the sheath off, and a good chunk of my thumb with it
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Jan 26, 2020 08:23
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My most embarrassing injury is when I hosed up sabering a bottle of sparkling wine and tore my hand to shreds. Just kidding, that's never happened. Give me a bottle of something sparkling and a heavy knife and I will pop the poo poo out of that.
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Jan 26, 2020 08:30
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Cutting my finger on the roof of a washing machine doing towels
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Jan 26, 2020 08:31
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Skwirl posted:My most embarrassing injury is when I hosed up sabering a bottle of sparkling wine and tore my hand to shreds. Worst actual cut is another bartender handing me a knife the wrong way after they've been cutting limes.
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Jan 26, 2020 08:35
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I cut my finger open on a banana
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Jan 26, 2020 09:04
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pile of brown posted:I cut my finger open on a banana Lethal banana
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Jan 26, 2020 16:46
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Dumbest (but also pretty bad) was cutting myself on ice cubes. Went to scoop ice like I did every single day to fill up an ice bath, the scoop was the type that doesn't have a handguard on it, just scoop with handle. Shredded the skin on the top of all four fingers. Had to empty out and sanitize the entire ice machine, it was loving awful. Worst injury: you know that split second reaction you get when something is falling and you want to catch it? You know how that happens even when the thing is dangerous, like a knife? So I had a large pot of what was going to be hard-crack candy boiling away, with a thermometer clipped to the side of it. The clip was pretty loose, and a bubble hit the thermometer in just the right way to pop it up over the clip, and start to fall into the pot. "Don't let that fall in there!" thinks my brain. So my index/middle/ring fingers and thumb, up to about the first knuckle, all ended up in the candy. They came out with a nice hard crack coating. As soon as I put them under some water, the candy came right off though, at least (along with 2 or 3 layers of skin, which was less good).
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Jan 26, 2020 16:47
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I was laminating croissant dough and somehow managed to just barely get my fingers pinched up top the first knuckle. No permanent injuries but my middle finger knuckle was purple for awhile.
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Jan 26, 2020 17:46
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dumbest and worst are the same: pulled a sheet tray off an open grill by the cool side, then, while flirting with an FOH, absent-mindedly shifted the weight in my hand to the hot side, searing my palm and some fingers in the process. those blisters stuck around for a month  for captkirk’s “wow this was stupid” question, after 5+ years in the industry i am still training myself not to try and catch falling knives
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Jan 26, 2020 19:19
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Some of the flowers for the dining room had wilted suddenly so I went out to the garden to grab a few to fill out the vases before service started. Couldn't find any scissors so I just used the little knife on my wine key and managed to slice my palm open.
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Jan 26, 2020 21:14
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Cut myself while cubing pineapple once. Not a fun thing to have in a cut. That was my worst at-work injury. My worst food and drink related injury was was when a goblet I was holding fuckin exploded in my hand (I dunno what happened, it lightly touched my plate and kablooey). That one needed a few stitches and I still have the scar 10 years later.
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Jan 26, 2020 21:34
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I'll get in on this. I was cooking huge batches of pasta for a pasta feed. We would dump the pasta into the prep sinks, put buckets of ice on top, and mix it up to shock the pasta. While mixing the pasta with gloved hand, an ice cube melted to a razor sharp edge on one side, which proceeded to slice through my glove and under one of my fingernails. There was blood everywhere, and we had to scrap two cases worth of cooked pasta. This had to be tied as the most painful cut I have ever received. The other was when I was cleaning out semolina from in between the gates on the grill from grilling off hundreds of pizza crust for flatbeds with a steak knife, which was the best tool we had for the job. While running the steak knife between the grates, it caught in something, and my hand slipped down the handle, and the nicely dulled serrated edge of the steak knife sliced my thumb open right down the center. Not only did it cut me, but it burned the cut, and packed it full of soot from the grill.
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Jan 26, 2020 21:41
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Yup, that's how I made pasta, Uncle Lizard. I was working in a bulk kitchen that made pre-made meals for other storefronts and our cookers could make 4 cases worth of rice pasta at once. Use one cooker to boil and cook the pasta, pour the water out down the drain (with optional step of splashing the hot water over your shoe and letting it soak in), transfer it to icewater bath you've made in the second cooker. Bitch when the motor on the second cooker dies so you can't easily drain it. The one we used for the cooking because it was bigger/deeper had a hand crank which was super nice because that never broke as compared to a slow rear end electric motor running a hydraulic arm that seemed to die every 2-3 months. Also I have it. The most pointless, ultimately self inflicted injury I experienced: The very first day I worked prep in that kitchen I was preparing several pounds of onions and poblano peppers (and red/green peppers but those are not that big of a deal). When I was down I took off my gloves and then wiped the sweat out of my eyes, not realizing my glove had a hole in them. Basically I just smeared pepper and onion juices in my eyes.
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Jan 26, 2020 22:20
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When working a bakery I grabbed a lovely wobbly rack and took out one pan of 12" buns. There's 10 buns to a pan, and the pans themselves are heavy. Well I decided I wanted a better rack, and after grabbing it I transferred the pan without using my oven mitts. Holyshit that was hot as gently caress. For the rest of the night I thought I was going to cry everytime I took stuff out of the oven. Didn't even get a blister though. But by the time I did that my hands were already pretty heat resistant from years of being inside the oven.
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Jan 26, 2020 22:28
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I know I've mentioned both of these stories before, but it's a toss-up between: - Cleaning a meat slicer at my first kitchen job at age 15, slipping and jamming my thumb right into the blade. Cleaved my thumbnail right in half, still got the scar. - Using a grill brick on a piping hot flat-top, slipping and palming the thing. I had a blister the size of a golf ball on my palm for a few weeks; can probably dig up the photo if you guys want to see. The dumbest thing that didn't end up hurting was the thing with the pot of hot oil though. I mean, I'd seen the WSIB commercial and everything.
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Jan 26, 2020 23:02
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My worst injury was definitely the time I went to look under a reach-in for something and lost my footing. I landed directly on my scapula and dislocated my shoulder. It's never been right since. Most recent was I caught a hot sheet pan on the inside of my elbow, it's actually a really cool looking scar and is an excellent training tool. Dumbest was probably when I decided to lube up the 400 degree flat top and brick it out without putting on an oven mitt, with predictable results.
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Jan 26, 2020 23:32
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Alkydere posted:Also I have it. The most pointless, ultimately self inflicted injury I experienced: The very first day I worked prep in that kitchen I was preparing several pounds of onions and poblano peppers (and red/green peppers but those are not that big of a deal). When I was down I took off my gloves and then wiped the sweat out of my eyes, not realizing my glove had a hole in them. Basically I just smeared pepper and onion juices in my eyes. And everyone ripped on you for it for weeks, right?
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Jan 27, 2020 01:47
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Cleaning dishes in a sink full of soapy, sudsy water, and at one point I pull out a glass to rinse it off and notice the dish water's a nice, bright fire-engine red. I look down at my right hand, and I'd apparently almost sliced the muscle right off the bone off of my pinky finger. Come to find out, there was a glass cup with a divot taken out of the lip, maybe a half-inch all the way around, but sharp as a motherfucker. No ligament damage, thankfully, and with enough superglue and gauze it held for the rest of the night under a glove. Didn't end up requiring stitches either, and still retains full functionality, albeit with a wicked scar. It's mostly healed in the decade-and-a-half since, but I can definitely notice it if I bend my finger just the right way.
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Jan 27, 2020 06:35
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Dumbest injury was in culinary school. I had one of those cheap dial thermometers in my sleeve pocket and I opened a walk-in door with my shoulder. No real damage other than a massive bruise that hung around for weeks, but I must have hit a nerve just right because it is a pain I will never forget. My whole arm went numb.
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Jan 27, 2020 07:31
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