# Kitchen Scars



## miss kim78 (Mar 17, 2013)

The kitchen can be a dangerous place that inflicts injuries, leaving us with scars that are unsightly. What are some of the worst scar or stories of injuries you guys have gotten while working in the kitchen? Most of my scars are burns. In my defense, I am very pale, so I get burns very easily. I can even get a burn from being too close to extreme heat (while no direct contact is even emitted). My face and arms turn bright red while being near the hot line.

This is my forearm with the burns I have gotten in a 1-2years timeframe. I have found that some burn scars fade away with time, as skin cells regenerate. But I worry that some of the big ones will remain.





  








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miss kim78


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Apr 3, 2013







[h2] [/h2]


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## raibeaux (Dec 21, 2012)

Dumbest thing I ever did was to have my head in a dark place where the sun never shines and went after a French fry that fell out of the basket. 

Up to the forearm.

As I'm a fast learner, I have refrained from doing that again.


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## laurenlulu (Sep 9, 2012)

I have burn scars up and down my forearms from the ovens and carrying sheet pans but my worst by far was when I grabbed a perf pan out of the steamer just after opening it rather than waiting for the plume and burned my inner arm so badly that the skin sluffed off from my wrist to the elbow. Not cute.

I was at Disney World last summer and a lady ran up to me saying "I know those burns! You're a baker!", it was a weird comraderie as we compared scars.


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## boyo1991 (Feb 25, 2013)

cleaning the fryars.. I forgot the reconnection tube wasn't connected, so the dryers wouldn't fill back up... it was on top so I thought.. no buggy.. ill just carefullllyyyyy *bump* *sizzle* my hand went into the full filter! AAAAH! let's say I never again reset the fryers assuming the connection tubes are connected lol.


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## smork (Aug 27, 2012)

Miss Kim78 said:


> The kitchen can be a dangerous place that inflicts injuries, leaving us with scars that are unsightly. What are some of the worst scar or stories of injuries you guys have gotten while working in the kitchen? Most of my scars are burns. In my defense, I am very pale, so I get burns very easily. I can even get a burn from being too close to extreme heat (while no direct contact is even emitted). My face and arms turn bright red while being near the hot line.
> 
> This is my forearm with the burns I have gotten in a 1-2years timeframe. I have found that some burn scars fade away with time, as skin cells regenerate. But I worry that some of the big ones will remain.
> 
> ...


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

The cute little hostess who broke my heart.


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## boyo1991 (Feb 25, 2013)

Just Jim said:


> The cute little hostess who broke my heart.


xD +1 I think we've all been there!


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## burntsugar (Feb 24, 2013)

Had a number 1 talking too much slice his finger off! Rushed him to hospital with finger in bag of ice,... reattached but not cooking anymore. He's a host.


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## arugula (Sep 13, 2012)

The worst ones I can remember is; back when I was dishwashing. I bread knife went threw the tenden between my index and thumb. Or the other time I was taking a sheet pan of breast out of the 500 degree oven and may hand slipped. Covered my arm in chicken grease. Had blisters on my blisters.


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## linecook854 (Feb 13, 2013)

I feel left out in some way, I've line-cooked for 2+ years now and have never had anything serious happen. No scars either.

Took a few decent burns. Gallons of simmering lobster stock spilled on my legs and clogged feet AKA no protection against liquids. Short-rib braising liquid spill on my arm. Got a decent cut that bled through layers of duct tape and multiple gloves but didn't get stitches nor left a scar. I'm overdue for something pretty shitty.


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## shichangchu (Dec 4, 2010)

I was once sauteing a chicken breast during service. Some quick background on this chicken. I had been at the institution for about 3 months. The place had gone through regime and structure overhaul and everything was being upgraded. That morning we had found a case of frozen chicken breasts leftover from the previous regime. They had water added and all that fun stuff but the higher ups told us to use them up. Being new and not wanting to ruffle any feathers, I said okay. 

So during service I'm turning to plate when all of a sudden a bunch of water releases from the chicken, slides underneath the oil, causing the oil to pop in just the right way so that a majority of the oil in the pan landed on the hand that was holding the saute pan. First, I plate the chicken. Second, I run over to the nearby sink, throw the saute pan in, and immediately start cursing to myself. By this time, most of the staff had noticed and suddenly everyone was yelling. It was a interesting mish-mash of profanity in English, Spanish, Albanian, and Romanian. The result was first degree burns along my middle, ring, and pinky fingers and my wrist area. There were second degree burns all over my thumb and index finger. Luckily it was right at the end of service so I was able to go take care of my fun new burn. I work up the next day and basically wasn't able to use the hand. I had to work the next month with only my right hand because the left had to be a makeshift splint the whole time. Luckily I'm right handed.


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## wpgcook (Dec 26, 2012)

I was dumping out a stock pot full of pasta into a strainer in the sink when I was bumped by one  of the drivers who shouldn't have been in the kitchen to begin with. The water hit the strainer at an angle and a wave of boiling water spread out all over my arm. I stuck my arm into a pail of water for a couple of minutes to kill the pain. For two weeks I had a bright red forearm but amazingly it didn't do anything but peel like a sunburn and now it looks normal.

I get oven burns so often a lot of times I don't even remember getting them. I'll be in the shower and notice a long red strip across my arm and can't recall when it happened.


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## nickondk (Mar 19, 2013)

The worst injury i ever got, was from a porcelain bowl, that had been in the oven, my kitchen hand at that moment had taken it out without telling me that it was hot, so that left me with a blister on my ring finger, the whole finger turned into a blister, the worst part was that i couldnt just go home, so had to work onehanded with the finger in ice!

But clearly i have had it easy compared to some of you guys!


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## theperegrine (Jul 17, 2012)

I actually got my worst one just a few weeks ago. I'm typically very careful (barring a certain distaste for using tongs with deep fryers - I don't like the resultant quality) so I don't injure myself much. I was chiffonading basil pre-service and my FOH manager starts to talk to me about the upcoming weekend, staffing etc. I turn my head to look at him and casually slice off a good half of my left index fingernail. WHEW - thankfully my knives are sharp or I might have got the finger and not just the nail. Wasn't fun, but hey I got off lucky.

I've seen some nasty stuff, but it always pays to BE CAREFUL!


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## pirate-chef (Jan 25, 2012)

i was rushing through prep and slicking romaine 3-4 heads at a time since the chef the night before had done zero prep and just run me out. i slipped and had somehow twisted my left hand upside down and sliced my left pointer finger at an angle basically from the last crease to the fingernail taking most of the fingerprint off and needing 8 stitches. also a burn like mentioned above a lot of fat was under a huge roast i was searing on the flat top. i grabbed it to scoot it over and the bubble released splashed out hit the wall of the flat top and came up. i had gloves on so it melted from the under side of my thumb and followed the inside of my glove across the top of my hand by the time i got the glove off it was in shreds and by the end of service i counted 17 blisters across my hand.


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## planethoff (Apr 25, 2011)

Back when I was a line cook, I was working saute station with another guy.  It was the end of the night and we were breaking down our station.  I was pulling the sauces from the cold wells and transferring them to a lexan to bring to the walk-in.  Little did I know that my co-worker pulled the cast iron range grates and had them on the floor to be sprayed down.  I grabbed the bin and started for the walk-in not really being able to see the floor clearly with the giant lexan in front of me.  I tripped on the grates, was able to put the sauces on the counter as I fell so nothing was spilled, but I splayed myself across the grates that had been over fire for the last 14 hours.  I had griddle marks from my shoulder to my knees on my right side for over two years.  My forearm, being the only part that was not covered with clothes, was by far the worst and people said it looked like I was mauled by a bear or something and now over 20 years later you can still sort of see the scars.


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## cheffatlady (Apr 15, 2013)

Burns on forearms and hands of course. I have a severed tendon in a left hand finger from the slip of a serrated knife. But my worst injury.. I was cooking on a grill that was almost as tall as me (I am 5'6"). I was cleaning the grill and leaned as far as I could to clean the back part of it. Well, I have a large chest.. Ouch ouch. Luckily I had on an apron, my chef coat, and a coat under that. It stung but did not leave a scar.


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