06.12.06
My Hands.
So I am thinking that the most visible damage to my body over the course of my becoming a chef will be to my hands. Burns, cuts, manglings in food processors and meat grinders, lost digits, and all other sorts of calamaties await me if the hands of my chef instructors are reliable harbingers. (For the record, only one of my chef instructors is missing any fingers - and he lost it in a landscaping accident to be fair…)
So I have decided as an on-going record of the effect of this job my my body, I will periodically photo my hands to show where I am at with scarring and other assorted injuries my hands sustain over time. This will be the starting point for how my hands are now with all noticable scars and injuries highlighted:
Right Hand
Left Hand
OK, so we have a “ground zero” from which to measure all other injuries. I don’t think I am looking forward to updating this section too much, but I have a feeling I will be doing so regularly once I get into the kitchen full time… Something about that ham-bone-holding incident that just does not forebode well for me…
P.S. I was troubled by the fact that I couldn’t remember where that scar on my left hand came from, so I thought on it a bit. (You can really tell my mind is in my work these days…) Anyway, I just remembered, that is another burn scar from culinary school. Who knew that a pan that had been in a 400 degree oven for the past half hour would be so hot?
Stumble it!
Boutros said,
June 12, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Putting hand through a window. Was this a B&E gone terribly wrong?
And cutting the ham at age 10. Were you slaving in some sort of pork-related sweatshop?
Matt said,
June 12, 2006 at 6:57 pm
The hand through the window wis a litle fuzzy but it happened during college, and beer was involved. As for the ham injury, this is what happens when you don’t use the right tools for the job.I couldn’t find the roast fork, so I grabbed the ham bon with my lft hand while slicing above it with my right. The knife slipped, and I cut my finger down to the bone. (The bone in my finger, not the ham bone…)
So always take the time to use the right tools, and always cut carefully people! (We’ll see how well I follow my own advice in the coming months…)
Matt