10.30.06

The First Cut is the Deepest

Posted in The Story at 10:14 pm by Chef Matt

Well, at least I hope so…

I have been working for some time now, and (knock on wood) have not really cut myself all that badly. I have only cut myself very well up until now. (insert rimshot) Seriously though, my injuries have really all been burns, and they have been numerous as well as very painful. But as far as cutting myself, I have been relatively lucky until now, as I have not really done it. Sure, there was the funny slip up on my first day, but that was really really minor.

Well, that changed today as I was setting up the sandwich station. A large order had been placed to be ready by 11:30, and at 11 we were all getting things together to throw this order together as cleanly and easily as possible. There is only so much a space as small as the one we work in will allow us to do at once, so good preparation goes a long way. But just before that, we were doing all the cutting for all the other stations. And on my board, lettuce was being cut in large quantities.

I looked over to my co-chef and asked her, “Is there anything I can do for you to help set up?”

Yeah, so it hurts worse than it looks, but I love the way the line goes through the thumb AND the nail… that just looks neat.

Well, that’s what I intended to say. The slight lapse in judgment of looking away while chopping lettuce, while thinking about the next things I had to do - instead of what I was currently working on - was all it took. I believe my actual quote was: “Is there anything I can do for…GAH!”

The knife went down into my thumb pretty well and quite frankly if it weren’t for my thumbnail to slow the blade down, this would have been really serious. As it turns out, it was not that much of a bleeder, but I did have to spend a lot of time with the old gloved hand today. God I hate wearing those annoying little gloves.

But that is hardly the worst part. This jagged thumbnail is now going to catch on every piece of clothing I put on and take off for the next month, and that is really going to suck. The upside of this is that the sound of fingernails catching on things drives my wife up the wall. Gives her the heebie jeebies like nails on a chalkboard does to the rest of us. So at least I have that going for me…

Matt

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